Sugar of the Future
by malexfan13
Summary: Sugar is actually Brittana's daughter from the future. Without her, there were no Troubletones, no Finn vs Santana, and no Santana outing. How did this affect Brittana's future, and how will Sugar going back in time change the past and the future?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Ngl, this idea was not originally mine but it just begged to be fic-ed, so this is my attempt. Not sure how long this'll go for but I'll try to make it interesting. Hope you enjoy!  
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><p>"La la la la la la la la la," Brittany sang out gently, going up and down the scale in demonstration while Sugar watched her as they sat together casually on the living room couch. The television across the room was airing live coverage of the 2031 VMAs and Sugar had insisted she was a better singer than the latest performer, Lady Gaga's teenage daughter, which of course had <em>then <em>led to a short lesson on singing from someone who Sugar knew had had actual experience with it in the past: her mother. "Now you try."

"La la la la la la la la la," Sugar mimicked creakily, her voice cracking twice as Brittany struggled to hide a wince. The fifteen-year-old smiled proudly when she was finished. "I sounded fabulous. I should totally join my school's Glee Club; they'll elect me unanimous leader as soon as I open my mouth."

Brittany's own mouth opened and closed for a few seconds as she struggled to find an appropriate response to that. Finally, she settled on: "You do whatever makes you happy, honey."

"Do you think my disability will give me an advantage against the other people who try to join?" Sugar mused suddenly. "Is it like college?"

"You don't have a disability," Brittany reminded her, flicking her on the shoulder and earning a bratty huff in response. "And don't say you do anymore; I'm sick of taking trips to the school to sort out issues that don't exist. I'm sending your _other_ Mom if it happens again, got it?"

Sugar shot her a glare and crossed her arms. "I thought you said you weren't gonna tell her!"

"And I haven't. So no more self-diagnosed Aspergers from you, and she'll never hear about it in the first place. Deal?"

Sugar just rolled her eyes and adjusted her attention to the television, where a forty-year-old Ke$ha was performing her latest single, "Glitter and Alcohol". "Some things never change," Brittany whispered from beside her as she watched the performance, earning a clueless eyebrow raise from her daughter in response.

Off in the distance a door slammed, and Brittany perked up immediately as Santana entered the living room, setting a small briefcase down on the kitchen counter and kicking her shoes off once she was done. She let out a relieved sigh, wiggling her toes, then looked over at them with a satisfied smile as Brittany grinned and practically leapt off of the couch to greet her. "You're home early!"

Sugar watched in disgust as they hugged each other tightly for a good few seconds before pulling away to lock eyes with matching grins on their faces. "Yeah, well… I figured we'd want some extra time for our special day."

Brittany nodded happily and leaned in for their usual after-work peck on the lips, but this time it went on longer than usual. Sugar rolled her eyes and glanced at the clock on the wall, then pretended to check her wrist for a few seconds, before finally clearing her throat. "Okay I get it; twenty-year anniversary or whatever… but seriously. Get a room."

They detangled themselves from each other and both turned to her at the same time: Brittany sporting a guilty expression, and Santana an offended one.

"Go to your room, Sugar," the latter commanded.

"Uh, no. The VMAs are on." Sugar rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the television, while Santana looked over at Brittany incredulously. She received a nervous shrug in response.

"Listen, your Mom and I are going out to dinner tonight," she finally announced, watching as Sugar continued to focus on the television unblinkingly. After a moment, she leaned over slightly, waving her hand in Sugar's expression. "Hey! Escúchame!"

"I haven't started taking Spanish yet," Sugar replied simply, but her attention moved to Santana anyway. "Hi, were you saying something?"

Santana stared back at her for a moment, before looking to Brittany with a sigh. Sugar caught the faintest sounds of "please… ground her?" and immediately straightened up indignantly. "Hey, you can't ground me; I have a date with Johnny tomorrow night!"

"Sugar, we told you you _couldn't _go on that date," Brittany reminded her gently. "No dating until you're sixteen."

"But… _he's _sixteen."

"Oh, _that'll _make us say yes," Santana countered sardonically, cutting Sugar's rebuttal off to continue, "Now, as I was saying, Britt and I are going out to dinner tonight for our anniversary. We should be back by midnight, but while we're gone: no parties, no getting into the liquor cabinet, and _especially _no Johnny Hen-rich. Understood?"

"It's pronounced _Heinrich_," Sugar retorted. "He's Jewish."

"Well, that doesn't change the fact that he certainly won't be getting anywhere near _your _Holy Temple if your mothers have anything to say about it," Santana told her snarkily, and Sugar's face dropped as she watched Santana pull a giggling Brittany out of the room in the direction of their shared bedroom.

"Like _you _didn't do the same thing when you were my age?" Sugar called out defensively as they left. She hadn't expected a response, but a moment later, Brittany's head popped around the corner, her cheeks slightly pink.

"As a matter of fact, your mother and I were virgins until our wedding night," she retorted hastily, before disappearing back around the corner and hurrying off to go get ready for her impending date.

"Yeah, right," Sugar mumbled, sitting back and crossing her arms before turning the television volume up with the remote in her hand. Willow Smith finished off a choreographed performance to her latest single and Sugar sighed, bored and frowning as she envisioned the night ahead. A whole house to herself on a Friday night, and absolutely nothing to do or no one to hang out with.

Sighing again, she got up and tossed the remote to the side, padding down the hallway until she passed by the guest bathroom. She did a double-take when she saw Brittany was inside, curling her hair in the mirror and already dressed in a sparkling black dress. "I like your dress," she commented, stepping inside the bathroom to watch Brittany put the finishing touches on her hair and begin her makeup.

"Complimenting me isn't going to get you a date with Johnny," Brittany warned her, shooting her a smile in the mirror. Sugar rolled her eyes.

"Why are you in here anyway?" Sugar paused for a second, then answered her own question before Brittany could, "Oh wait, you're doing that lame thing where you get ready separately and then don't see each other until you're ready to go? I thought that was just for weddings."

"Well, tonight's special," Brittany reminded her. "Twenty years is a long time to be with someone."

"Don't you ever get bored?" Sugar mused, moving back and settling on the toilet lid, then leaning over to grab a nail file out of an open drawer. She worked on her nails as she waited for a response.

"Nope. I just love your mom that much," Brittany replied with a smile, leaning closer to the mirror to apply mascara. "Besides, relationships change a lot over such a long period of time. People change. Twenty years ago, I was a lot less smart and Santana was a lot less brave."

Sugar snorted. "_Mom, _afraid? She almost killed that guy who messed up her mani last week."

Brittany grinned. "Well, she was always like _that_. But when we first started dating we couldn't even hold hands in public. People weren't as okay with two women being in a relationship as they are now."

Sugar raised an eyebrow. "No PDA? That would suck; Johnny and I-" Brittany paused to look at her and Sugar finished hastily, "Uh, hold hands all the time. So um, why did you care what other people thought?"

Brittany shrugged. "It's just something that was a big deal to her. We started dating during our senior year of high school, and never told anyone until near the end of college. Not the best way to spend four years in a relationship, but… I stuck it out, and it was worth it."

"Why?" Sugar replied incredulously. "You should've dumped her ass."

"Language," Brittany reprimanded, then chuckled. "And you better be glad I didn't, because _your _ass wouldn't be sitting here asking me these questions. Anyway, I stayed with her because-"

"Because that's what people who love each other do," Santana cut her off from the doorway, and Sugar heard Brittany gasp as they looked at each other for the first time.

"You're gorgeous," Brittany breathed out, and Santana bit her lip and grinned, twirling slightly in a dark red dress and then holding her hand out for Brittany to take.

"So are you. Are you ready to go?"

"Ah, almost; the little one here distracted me. All of a sudden she wants to know about when we started dating."

"Why? Senior year of high school; she knows that," Santana replied as Sugar looked indignant at having been called "the little one".

"I was just asking about why you wouldn't hold her hand, is all," she defended. Santana wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Ugh, because I was a completely ashamed closet case and had a lot of issues with myself back then," Santana told her. "It ruined the rest of high school and a lot of college, and if I could change it, I would. But we can't turn back time, and… I think we turned out pretty well in the end, didn't we?" She shot Brittany a small smile and received one in return, then reached down to pat Sugar twice on the head. Sugar immediately began fixing her hair as Brittany finally finished her makeup.

"All done!"

"Beautiful, as always," Santana complimented as Brittany finally took her hand. Santana twirled her out through the doorway and called back, "Remember, Sugar: no boys!"

"Yeah, yeah," Sugar mumbled back, finishing up with the nail file as the front door swung open down the hall, then slammed shut a moment later. "So lame." She left the bathroom and headed back to the living room where the VMAs were still on, musing silently to herself about the conversation that had just occurred. If there was one thing she knew about her moms' personalities, it was that Brittany was the level-headed, caring one, and Santana was the strong-willed, "take me as I am or get the hell away" type who did whatever she could to make sure the people she cared about were satisfied. It was a little disconcerting to think of either of them as cowardly or to imagine them hiding their relationship. Sugar couldn't imagine not being able to make out with Johnny in the hallways every day.

Plus, she was a teenager herself after all, so she knew there was no way in _hell_ her moms had waited until marriage to have sex.

Her interest officially piqued, she got up and headed to her moms' bedroom, recalling that they kept all their high school momentos and pictures in a large box in the back of their closet. Sugar had never been curious enough to bother looking through it before, but she did know that both of her moms had been cheerleaders, and that they'd been a part of a glee club called New Directions from sophomore through senior year. This reminder was what had recently inspired Sugar to think about trying out for her own school's glee club. After all, if her moms could do it, she totally could, too.

She dug through several boxes before finally locating the correct one, then spent five minutes dragging it out of the closet and dumping the contents onto the floor. A mountain of pictures and trophies spilled out, and she sifted through the pile, picture by picture. There were a lot that contained a third blonde cheerleader who Sugar quickly identified as Quinn Fabray; her moms had lost touch with the girl after high school but they'd mentioned her occasionally over the years. The same went for several members of New Directions, actually; Sugar found that she could put names to most of the faces she saw, but she'd never met any of them personally. Now that she thought about it, she realized this was probably another effect of her moms keeping their relationship a secret. They probably had wanted to cut ties with everyone who might've suspected something during high school.

"That sucks," she mumbled, trying to imagine never seeing her own friends again after high school.

She found a picture of her moms with Kurt Hummel and his boyfriend Blaine Anderson near the bottom of the pile. Santana looked like she wanted to be anywhere else at that moment but in that picture, and Brittany was smiling widely next to her but there was a small but noticeable gap in between herself and Santana. Beside them, Blaine and Kurt were pressed together with their hands clasped between them. "Geez, be more gay," Sugar mumbled at Kurt and Blaine. "And be more obvious you _don't_ want to look gay," she added to the female half of the picture, before tossing it aside and reaching for another one. "And those uniforms are super ugly, ick. _So _2010s."

She went through a couple dozen more pictures and after being sufficiently disturbed by the dude with the butt-chin she forced herself to clean it all up and move it back into the closet. "Where you two evidently thought you belonged in high school anyway," she mumbled with a roll of her eyes as she pushed the box to the very back and then collapsed on Brittany and Santana's bed. The clock read 10:30, which meant she still had another hour and a half to kill.

She went to her room and grabbed her cell phone, deciding to text Johnny to pass the time, but apparently he was way ahead of her because she already had 1 new text from about an hour ago: _"We still on for tomorrow?"_

She stared at the phone in her hand for a moment, mulling it over, then smirked and replied, "_I'll have to sneak out, but we are _so _on." _

"_Cool. You pick where we're going."_

Sugar bit her lip and smiled, then closed her phone and collapsed back into her pillows with a dreamy sigh. Tomorrow, she was going on her first date with her first official boyfriend, and she vowed to make sure they did something they'd never forget.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Glad so many people are liking this! I've been writing like crazy so hopefully there'll be another update soon. I'm thinking this story will end up following canon, but only through "I Kissed a Girl", since I should hopefully finish this within the next week or so. **

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><p>"Al Motta's Time-Traveling Extravaganza!" Sugar exclaimed into her phone the next morning, trying hard to hide the extent of her excitement. "He's coming to town tonight! We could totally go check it out!"<p>

There was a long pause on the other end, followed by a sigh. _"Sugar… didn't the government, like… _just _release a statement saying time-traveling is _possible _only a month ago? There's no way this crackpot is legit. He'll probably do a couple magic tricks, we'll ooh and aah, and then we'll go."_

Sugar pouted at her phone. "You don't have to be such a spoilsport, Johnny. You said I could pick. I think the idea of time-traveling's really cool."

_"Yeah, if it was real. It's like two-hundred and fifty bucks a person to get in. I could take you to a magic show for a lot less than that. Hell, I could learn a couple tricks and show them to you for free."_

"Well… what if it is real? What if we get to go back in time and that's why it's so expensive or something?"

A laugh from the other end punctuated her statement. _"Now you're just being crazy. Look, I don't have five-hundred dollars, Sugar. If you do, then okay. I'll humor you and go. But I just don't have the money."_

"Well… I mean, my parents _are _rich," Sugar mused quietly. "I could probably take it and they wouldn't notice, at least not for a while. If I do that, will you take me?" There was another pause on the other end. "...Please?"

Johnny sighed, and Sugar bit her lip. _"…Fine. But this better be worth it."_

There was a click on the other end, and Sugar set her phone down while still biting her lip, then hopped off of her bed and went into the living room. Her moms were still passed out in their bedroom from having stayed up so late the night before, and Sugar quickly located Santana's purse on the kitchen counter and then dug her wallet out of the front pocket. "Please don't kill me," she squeaked out aloud as she rifled through it, quickly coming up with two-hundred dollars. She dug around for another few seconds and came up empty, then let out an aggravated growl and looked around for Brittany's purse. It was on the coffee table, and she found exactly forty-five dollars inside. Adding to the five dollars from her own wallet, that gave her exactly enough for herself. She spent the next few minutes weighing her options.

She knew there was a high chance more money was lying around the house, but the majority of it was most likely in her moms' room. Saturdays were their "lay around and relax" days, which meant they'd both be home all day, and would be spending most of their time in their bedroom. If they caught her trying to steal more money, they'd want to know what it was for, and she'd be busted and wouldn't be allowed to see Johnny at all.

_Or_… since Johnny didn't seem too anxious to go, maybe he could take her there, they'd get to spend some time together, and then he'd be okay with _her _seeing the time-traveling guy while he waited for her. Then they could totally go make out afterwards and stuff. It was better than nothing, and this way she had a better chance of actually getting to go out on the date with him in the first place.

Her mind made up, she tucked the money into her own wallet and then stuffed it into the purse in her bedroom. All that was left was to wait for that night.

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><p>"Goodnight, sweetie."<p>

"Goodnight, Mom…s."

Brittany and Santana closed the door behind themselves and darkness enveloped Sugar's bedroom. Almost immediately, she hopped out of bed, revealing the new dress she'd just bought a week ago and had been wearing underneath the covers. A quick check of her phone told her Johnny was on his way, and she quickly brushed her hair and did her makeup, then hurried to the bedroom window and pushed it open as quietly as she could. Her bedroom was on the first floor and so she quickly ducked outside, purse in hand, then swung her other leg out through the window and gently lowered herself to the ground, checking to make sure she'd be able to get back up when she got home. After a hasty reassurance that she would, she made her way out to the street as quickly as she could in high heels.

Johnny pulled up in his car less than a minute later, leaning over to push the passenger's side door open, and Sugar practically collapsed into the seat, raising a hand to her forehead. "That was exhausting."

"Yeah, come here," Johnny replied, putting the car into park and then pulling her in for a kiss. Or two. Or ten.

Sugar pulled away when her brain finally caught up, then smacked him on the arm.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"My moms are gonna see us if you don't get us out of here! Do you wanna get caught or not?" she hissed to him. He rolled his eyes and put the car in gear, then stepped on the gas and sped down the street.

"So where's this time machine thing?" he asked her disinterestedly, glanced sideways at her as she removed a piece of paper from her purse.

"Just a few minutes away. I printed directions," she told him proudly. He took them from her wordlessly, and she sat back with a smug grin and let him drive.

A few minutes later, they pulled up to a small park lit by a few stray lampposts. It looked completely deserted, save for a small tent in the middle of a nearby field. Sugar got out of the car and immediately started towards it, and Johnny hurried to catch up to her.

"It's creepy as hell out here," he whispered beside her, looking around them nervously. "If this were a horror movie we'd so be getting killed any second now. Let's just go; there's no one here anyway and I don't care about seeing this guy."

"Well good," Sugar replied, aggravated, "because I only brought enough money for me to see him anyway. You're waiting outside for me."

Johnny grumbled something intelligible, but followed her all the way to the tent anyway. They waited outside in silence for a minute or so, before Sugar finally leaned forward and tapped on the side. "Hello? Time-traveler guy? We're here to see you and I brought money!"

She heard some shuffling inside and several crashes, along with the sound of glass shattering, until out popped an older man that looked to be in his fifties or sixties. He had a long, scraggly beard and circular glasses that made his eyes look wider. Sugar held out her hand daintily. "Teleport me now, please."

He stared at her for a moment, as though trying to decipher what exactly she was, then chuckled light-heartedly and opened the tent flap wider. "Come in, come in."

"I don't have the money," Johnny told him hastily as Sugar ducked inside the tent, but Al Motta simply swept the nervous boy inside as well.

"Oh, don't worry about that; that was simply a deterrent; a way to throw people off the scent, if you will. Can't have just anyone showing up and getting a glimpse of my secrets, can I? I wanted a small audience for my first demonstration, and, well… here we are. What are your names?"

"My name's Sugar," she told him brightly, tucking her money back into her wallet. "This is Johnny, my boyfriend. We're on our first date."

"Well, congratulations," he told her happily, his eyes brightening behind his spectacles. Sugar looked past him and suddenly became aware of a large contraption taking up half the area in the tent.

"Is that your machine?" she asked him curiously while Johnny's eyes widened beside her. "Do I get to test it?"

"Now, now… there'll be no one else time-traveling around here if I can help it. I can give you a demonstration by transporting myself, but only for a short time."

"How do you use it?" Sugar pressed on, ignoring him. "Do you have to climb inside? Where's the entrance?"

"That's… actually not it," Al informed her. "That's just the generator. The real machine won't work unless it's within close proximity of the generator. This limits its power and ensures that no one can just use it willy nilly. See, I completed the generator in late 2011, twenty years ago. That part was the easy part. The time machine itself was only finished just recently, and it's right… here."

He reached into his pocket, and without further ado presented a large coin, about the size of a chocolate chip cookie. "I use this to time travel, although I'm always careful to never change the past in a significant way. Don't want to screw up the future and end the world, of course. See, you turn the dials, like so…"

"Sugar, I'm not too sure about this. Maybe we should go," Johnny whispered in her ear anxiously, but she brushed him off with a roll of her eyes and focused her attention back to Al.

"How does it know where you want to go?" she questioned, sitting up straighter.

"Well, first you have to enter the date and time, which you do by scrolling through this little do-hickey right here. I'll set it for 2012. See, the thing I have to be careful about is never going back before December 2011. If I go back before then, I'd have to wait for my past self to finish building the generator before I can return. So I'd be stuck in the past until then. Now, let's see… we'll say 8 a.m. on August 3rd, 2012, and since I was living in Ohio at that time and I want it to be easy to find the generator so I can come back, I'll set the location to Lima, Ohio."

"No way," Sugar whispered quietly to herself, recognizing the city instantly. It was where her parents had went to high school at McKinley High.

"In fact, since I want to make it _really _easy, I could just enter my own past address in here, like so…" He pressed a few buttons, then finished, "And there we go. Now I'll just go back in time by pressing this little green button here, give my past self a tiny scare, and then press this _red _button to go back to the moment I traveled into the past, which in this case would be… now." He pressed the green button and with a quick flash of light, immediately disappeared.

Sugar's jaw dropped and Johnny immediately stood up. "Man, I'm outta here."

"Bye," Sugar replied breathlessly, still staring at the spot Al had disappeared from. Almost immediately after Johnny had fled the tent, another flash of light appeared, and Al was standing in front of her again.

"Woo, that was a bit of a doozy…" He looked from Sugar's stunned expression, to their surroundings, and his face dropped. "Oh dear… did I accidentally take the boy with me?"

"No, but please take me with you," Sugar gasped out, falling to the floor and grasping at his leg, her purse nearly slipping off of her shoulder. "Please please please; I want to time travel too! My moms could totally pay you to let me!"

"Now, this is a very dangerous…I must say…" Al stammered from above her. "Miss, this really is just for adults; it's not a toy."

"Just let me try it. Just for a second." She clung tighter to his leg and he weakly attempted to shake her off, then sighed when she wouldn't let go.

"My assistant told me this was a mistake, but did I listen? Of course not," he mumbled quietly to himself, eventually crouching down to Sugar's eye level. "Alright," he finally told her, and she perked up immediately, already reaching for the device. He yanked it out of her reach hastily. "I'm not going to let you use it, but you can have a look, okay?"

Sugar contemplated this for a moment, before finally nodding her agreement and getting to her feet. Al brandished the time machine nervously for a moment, before hesitantly handing it over to her. "Be careful, now."

"So I just press this button, here?" Sugar questioned curiously. Al was almost immediately starting to sweat. "Then I go back in time?"

"Yes, that's it. Now give it back so I can-"

"Wait," she cut him off, pulling it away as he reached for it. His thumb barely grazed the surface of the machine, and the 2 at the end of the set year scrolled up to a 1. "I want to try it."

"That's really not a good idea…"

"It's just for a second. Calm down, old guy," Sugar insisted, distancing herself from him and turning her back to look more closely at the machine. "I'll be back in a second, just like you were. So chill."

"Please don't," Al squeaked out behind her, just before Sugar reached down and pressed the green button.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I've changed my mind; this will actually not be canon through "I Kissed a Girl" since, well, "I Kissed a Girl" sucked save for the abuela scene. But I'll try to throw a few canon things from the episode in there to give everyone a better idea of the time line. The good things from the episode, anyway. **

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><p>One flash of light later, Sugar found herself standing in the center of a much younger Al Motta's living room, staring face-to-face at that young Al Motta himself. A long pause followed while he blinked at her, wide-eyed, and after a moment, Sugar self-consciously straightened her dress, then smiled at him.<p>

"Hi, I'm Sugar Lopez-Pierce. You're that old guy from before. Only… not so old. I time-traveled."

He opened and closed his mouth for a moment, still staring at her, then finally gulped down what looked like a lot of spit. "Yes. I can see that."

Sugar's smile widened simply, and she examined her surroundings absentmindedly as Al continued to take her in. "So this is what 2012 looks like, huh? That wallpaper is so tacky. You people seriously had no sense of style."

"2012?" Al echoed meekly, but Sugar didn't hear him.

"I could totally redesign this place with wallpaper from 2031, but then again Old You is kind of a downer so if I leave I don't think he'd let me come back. Anyway, I'm not supposed to mess up the past too much so I don't know how much I'm allowed to do. Plus I kinda have to be home before morning or my moms will kill me. But now I can say I'm a time-traveler! Anyway, where's your generator?" She returned her attention to him to see him watching her open-mouthed again. "Hmm?" She brightened suddenly. "Oh, wait, I should _totally _get some grass or something from 2012 and then take it home as a souvenir. I wonder if it'd be dead by then? Then again _I _wouldn't age if I went forward 20 years so… but then again I'm not from 2012. Am I being awkward right now? I'm sorry. I have Aspergers. Self-diagnosed Aspergers." She stepped forward and held out her hand. "Nice to meet you."

His mouth still open, he gingerly leaned forward and shook her hand, finally seeming to come to grips with the current situation. "Okay, let me get this straight… you're from the future?"

"Yep! 2031."

"And…that thing in your hand is a time machine."

"Yep."

"I built that… in the future. And I finished my generator. And… it worked?"

"Well, you're already done with your generator," Sugar corrected lightly. "But yeah, you're a total genius. Congrats. Future You told me I just have to press this red button while I'm standing near the generator, and then I'll just pop right back over to 2031, where I belong. And since Future You said you finished your generator in December of 2011, and it's now August of 2012, you just have to show me where it is and I'll be on my way." She looked around as though the generator would suddenly appear behind her, and Al slowly got to his feet, rubbing at the back of his head nervously.

"Um. Miss…"

"Sugar."

"Sugar." Al took a deep breath, then told her, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but…there must have been some kind of mistake. It's August of 2011, not 2012. I'm still working on my generator."

Sugar's face fell. "What? How am I getting back, then? I'm stuck here?"

"If that time machine only works when the generator's complete… well… I'm sorry, but I don't know what to tell you. I think you might be unable to leave."

Sugar blinked at him for a moment, then abruptly started hyperventilating. "Oh my God. I'm gonna die. I can't stay here. Oh my God. The clothes are ugly and the walls are tacky and I don't know anyone and… and four months, I can't-"

Al rushed to her side hastily and caught her before she collapsed, helping her towards the table. "Now, Sugar, I know this is very confusing for the both of us, but I can assure you that you coming back here shouldn't change how long it takes me to build that generator. I've been working hard on it and if I said it took until December of this year, then that's how long it'll take. Maybe even less time now that I have motivation. This is just a simple mistake, and we'll get you right back to where you came from in no time."

"But… but I can't just roam around for four months, what'll I do? Where will I live?" Sugar sobbed into her hands, the time machine now discarded on the table as Al patted her on the back.

"You can stay here with me," he told her hastily, eager to calm her down. Almost instantly, her sobs subsided, and she looked up at him hopefully.

"Really?"

"Of course. Future Me was extremely irresponsible in letting you come back here, especially alone, and I'll accept the consequences of my own actions. It's only fair. In the meantime, we'll just have to give you something to do that won't change the future too much. Something uneventful. Unfortunately, the fact that I've got a child living under my roof won't go unnoticed for long, so we'll have to enroll you in school at McKinley High."

Sugar's eyes widened at that. "Wait…McKinley High? Oh my God. That's right. We're in Lima. In 2011."

"Right," he said, watching her come to this realization with something akin to amusement. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"So you'll be a sophomore. I've got quite a bit of money, so a few cover-ups here and there with that and you're my daughter, Sugar Motta." He put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "I assume they have school in the future?"

"Yes," Sugar confirmed, still reeling at the fact that she'd be going to school with her moms. During their senior year. The senior year where they'd begun dating and had tried to hide it. And now she'd know about it. She could do something about it.

Maybe she could spend her time in 2011 changing something they'd regretted.

"Well, then you'll be fine. It shouldn't be too hard for you to fit in. After all, you're still a kid, right? So we'll go shopping for supplies and clothes this weekend, school starts next Monday, and I'll continue my work on the generator so we can send you home."

* * *

><p>"These outfits are horrendous," Sugar mumbled to herself as she stumbled into the school lunchroom, examining her own clothing with a frown. She'd spent four whole days in 2011 and she'd already decided it was definitely not her thing. She had no idea how her moms had handled it all those years ago, especially having to wear those uniforms.<p>

Another reason to hate the uniforms, at least on her first day, was that they had Sugar spinning every which way every time she walked down the hall, trying to pinpoint either of her moms. She knew what they were wearing, but there were at least two-dozen other girls also wearing them, which didn't exactly make it easy to find either of her moms. So far, she hadn't been able to spot them.

She got her food from the lunch line and hesitantly took her spot at a random table, looking around and eying a purple piano across the lunchroom. Of course. In their "bonding time" over the past few days, Al himself had told her he was a big supporter of the arts and was planning on donating a few pianos to the McKinley Glee Club. What they were doing with those pianos, neither Sugar nor Al knew, but Sugar _did _know that wherever those pianos were, the New Directions kids were, and wherever New Directions were, her moms were. She withdrew a book to subtly hide her face and then immediately began looking around for them excitedly as a drum beat started up from the other side of the lunchroom. A few kids just a few tables down and over began to stand up and dance around, and Sugar turned to watch them as one of them (Sugar's memory told her the girl's name was Rachel Berry) climbed on a table in the row behind Sugar's and began walking down it as she sang the opening lines of a song Sugar had never heard before, but immediately hated.

_See the people walking down the street  
>Fall in line just watching all their feet<br>They don't know where they wanna go  
>But they're walking in time<em>

A sneakered foot stepped up onto the table next to hers and then walked right over to stand on the table just above Sugar's head. A Cheerios skirt swished back and forth to the beat and seconds later another pair of sneakers attached to a girl clad in a Cheerios uniform joined her. Sugar looked up and found herself staring straight at the rapidly-shaking asses of her parents.

She stared for a good few seconds, before snapping out of it and hastily returning her gaze to her book and forcing herself to not show any obvious reaction. She focused on the obnoxious behavior of one Rachel Berry instead throughout the chorus of the song, until she finally realized this wasn't a solo. Her moms both had parts too, and they were dancing, and singing, and _holy crap_ she had to get into this club and meet them.

A few push-ups from a muscle-y guy she knew as Puck and a long food fight later, and lunch was finally over. Sugar got through the rest of her day uneventfully, but she was unable to curb her curiosity about her moms. Were they dating already? Did they even know they liked each other? How long would it take them to start dating? If she interfered too much, would it _prevent _them from ever dating instead of helping them be open about it?

This time-traveling stuff was complicated.

* * *

><p>"You guys sucked ass."<p>

This was it. Her moms' eyes were on her and it was time to put those 2031 acting classes to the test.

"I'm Sugar Motta, and I have self-diagnosed Aspergers, so I can pretty much say whatever I want. I'm like a diplomat's daughter."

"How can we help you, Sugar?"

As her mom Brittany had always said: "If you believe it, then you can achieve it." Or something like that. So if she made them believe that they sucked, that she was good, and that they needed her, it was a done deal. She'd be in and she could totally get the inside scoop on her moms' current relationship.

"Here's the deal: I'm awesome. And I wanna be a big big star. And when I saw you guys singing and dancing in the cafeteria I thought: I'm so much better than you. Sorry, Aspergers."

The creepy guy named Will cleared the floor for her and she set her bag aside, taking her spot in the middle of the room. She shuffled through songs in her head, remembering at the last second that she couldn't perform anything from the future, and finally settled on an old song from her best friend's favorite musical.

"Get ready to taste some sweet ear candy. Hit it hottie."

_The minute you walked in the joint  
>I could see you were a man of distinction<br>A real big spender  
>Good lookin', so refined<br>Wouldn't you like to know  
>What's goin on in my mind?<em>

Her mom Brittany was totally loving it as far as Sugar could tell. Which: duh. She's awesome; her mom's apparently awesome even at seventeen, so clearly they'd have the same awesome taste.

_Hey big spender  
>Spend a little time with me<em>

She finished her flawless performance and happily bid them adieu, then left the room so they could discuss the amount of solos they were no doubt going to give her at their next show choir competition.

With her New Directions audition done, she left the school and started her walk home. Al lived just down the street which meant it only took her a few minutes to get there, and he was waiting for her, looking anxious when she walked through the door.

"Did your first day of school go well?" he asked her. "Did you make any friends?"

"Sure," she replied with a shrug, settling down on the couch triumphantly. She'd conveniently forgotten to tell him about her moms going to McKinley, but now she decided it was probably a good idea to leave that information out. He'd probably tell her she couldn't be in the glee club, or he'd make her transfer schools if he knew. "I'm joining New Directions. They're going to give me all the solos at their next competition," Sugar informed him happily.

"That's…wonderful," Al told her, sounding surprised. "I'm glad you're getting involved in something at school. It'll make the time pass much more quickly."

"Well… technically I haven't gotten in yet," she corrected. "But they'll let me in. My performance totally kicked their performance's ass, so."

Al looked like he didn't know what to say to that, and Sugar just let out another content sigh.

Maybe 2011 wouldn't be so bad, after all.


	4. Chapter 4

"Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my own awesomeness."

Will sighed beside Sugar and watched her dig through her locker.

"Look, Sugar-"

She slammed her locker shut abruptly and turned towards him, cutting him off with, "Obviously your ears are busted because I worked that song like a hooker pole. It's no biggie; I'll come in and I'll do it again."

"Sugar, I'm sorry… you can't sing. The answer is no. But I love your enthusiasm, and I'd be happy to work with you-"

Sugar shot him an offended look. "You know what? Who cares what you think? Hmm? Nobody! You're a washed-up Broadway wannabe who's stuck in Lima and has led the glee club to how many National wins? Oh, I'm sorry, zero! Not! Aspergers!"

She stormed off with her arms wrapped around her books, already muttering to herself. "Me? Not good enough? I'll show him. I'll find a coach even _better _and… and I'll get-"

She cut herself off as she passed Mercedes and Tina in the hall, hanging back when she overheard them say Santana's name and immediately trying to subtly listen in.

"You think she burned that piano on purpose?" Tina was asking nervously while Mercedes nodded her head.

"Girl, when does Santana _ever _do anything mean on accident? And Mr. Schue knows it, too. He'll probably kick her out of New Directions for it."

"No way. He's never kicked _anyone _out before."

"Yeah, well… nobody ever lit a piano on fire before, either. Then again, it's probably a blessing in disguise for her, anyway. Ain't like Santana _or _any of the rest of us are gonna get to sing anyway as long as Rachel's around."

Both girls sighed, and Sugar turned away, a smirk already forming on her lips. So her mom would probably be leaving New Directions anyway. She herself was wrongly robbed of her spot in the very same club. And from what she knew of her parents, they'd always been attached at the hip in high school, which meant that wherever Santana went, Brittany went.

Or in other words, whatever new glee club Santana joined, _Brittany _would join, too.

* * *

><p>"I need a favor."<p>

Al slid out from under his generator and looked up at her curiously, shifting slightly on the skateboard under his back. The wrench in his hand dripped oil onto his shirt and he winced. "Yes, Sugar?"

"I want money to start a second glee club. I need the start-up funds and money for a decent teacher, and I have the perfect one in mind: Shelby Corcoran. My par-… some kids at school told me she used to coach a rival club called Vocal Adrenaline and they were amazing. You stranded me here and you're rich anyway so you owe me. Plus you support the arts or whatever, so you should be glad I want to start another glee club, shouldn't you?"

Al considered this for a moment, then frowned. "Wait…what happened to New Directions? Why aren't you just joining them?"

Sugar's expression immediately went hard. "Their simple minds can't comprehend my flawlessness."

Al winced again, clearly seeing through her explanation. "Right. Well, you're correct; I do owe you. And I did say I wanted you to find something to get involved in, to pass the time until December. Very well; I'll give you however much money you need. I actually have a friend who knew Shelby Corcoran while she still coached Vocal Adrenaline, so I'll work on tracking her down for you, alright?"

"Thank you," Sugar replied stiffly, before abruptly turning on her heel and stalking out of the room.

* * *

><p>Sugar finished up at her locker for the second time that day, sighing to herself as she turned away and looked up and down the hallway. Al had apparently had some luck tracking down Shelby, but she wouldn't be arriving at McKinley for another couple of days, and the wait was killing Sugar. She'd made no friends yet, lunch was awkward and the food was bad, and she still didn't have her own glee club. Even worse, as a result of not getting into New Directions, her own parents still had had no contact with her in the two weeks she'd been at McKinley. And even with her mom Santana having been kicked out of New Directions, as Mercedes had predicted, word hadn't spread of Shelby's impending return, and so Santana hadn't approached Sugar about joining. Sugar was practically waiting with baited breath for <em>either <em>of her parents to talk to her at this point.

"Hey!"

Sugar's eyes widened as out of nowhere Brittany appeared in front of her, a flier in her hand. "You're the girl who Mr. Schue totally unfairly didn't let into glee club, right?"

"Unfairly," Sugar mouthed silently in an awed echo, then recovered enough to nod abruptly. "Yeah, that's me."

"Yeah." Brittany frowned. "I don't know what _he _heard, but I loved it. You're totally a good singer."

Sugar felt her heart leap in her chest. This Brittany was nothing like her mom was in the future, but she already loved her anyway. "Really?"

"Of course," Brittany replied. "I haven't enjoyed listening to someone sing that much since Rachel's cover of "The Climb", and that was like two years ago. You were super awesome."

"Thanks," Sugar replied breathlessly. Brittany just smiled at her.

"Anyway, what was your name again?"

"Sugar."

Brittany lit up yet again. "Oh yeah! I totally wanna name my baby that now. My first choice was Drizzle but I think Rachel and Finn are taking that one, so. Anyway," she offered Sugar the flier, who took it mindlessly in a state of shock, "vote Kurt Hummel for president, alright? He's totally the unicorn."

"Britt!"

Sugar's eyes widened even more, if possible, as Santana came marching down the hallway, stopping once she arrived beside Brittany. She didn't even spare Sugar a glance as she informed Brittany, "One of Kurt's posters came down just around the corner and I need help putting it back up. I'm not tall enough."

"Okay," Brittany agreed with a nod. "I was just telling Sugar to vote for Kurt."

Santana looked to Sugar for the first time, and Sugar stood stock-still under the judging gaze of her future mother. She hoped her hair looked nice.

"Right," Santana said after a moment. "Yeah, vote for Kurt. He's awesome. Whatever." Her gaze went back to Brittany and she grabbed her by the wrist. Sugar's eyes jumped to the contact. "Anyway, let's go before everyone leaves shoeprints on his face." She tugged Brittany away, apathetically tossing, "Bye, Flour," over her shoulder at Sugar as she went. Brittany twisted around to offer Sugar a grin and a wave, which Sugar was still too stunned to return.

"They're awesome," she whispered under her breath, only to hear a soft sigh from just a few feet away. She turned so quickly she almost got whiplash to see Jacob Ben Israel leaning up against the lockers, watching them go.

"Agreed," he concurred with a shaky breath, and Sugar stared at him for a moment before hastily turning and walking away.

* * *

><p>With Shelby's arrival and Al's funding finally came the start of a new glee club, and although Sugar was personally disappointed that Shelby's singing skills were so sub-par in comparison to her own, Shelby's name itself <em>did <em>bring in three new members in the form of three Cheerios Sugar decided to dub "One", "Two", and "Three". It wasn't like anyone needed to know their names anyway; Sugar was the only important member.

Unfortunately, she also discovered through word of mouth that her mother had rejoined New Directions, so Sugar set her sights on her next target: Mercedes Jones, the girl who she'd heard complaining about Rachel getting all the solos. Rachel and Mercedes were apparently the only two girls vying for the role of Maria in the school's upcoming production of West Side Story, which meant Sugar was in a prime position to sit back and watch the tension build. Mercedes already seemed jealous of Rachel anyway, so if this made their rivalry worse, Mercedes would be bound to see how much more awesome Sugar's club was and join it instead. And then, like a plague, the "leave New Directions" virus would spread, starting with the least loyal members of New Directions. Which, as Sugar already knew, would most likely be Santana, and by association, Brittany. It was only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, the presidential campaigns were really starting to take off, and while Sugar would've normally run herself, being the completely flawless human being that she was, she'd gotten wind of Brittany deciding to run and had already vowed to pledge her vote to her equally awesome mother. Especially since her mother's campaign was apparently being managed by her also equally awesome other mother.

Having gotten to know them in the short amount of time she'd arrived, partially through limited personal contact but mostly through word of mouth and through things she'd witnessed from afar, Sugar had quickly been able to put a label on her feelings for the high school versions of her parents. High school Brittany was super nice and just plain amazing, and had the best dance moves ever. Sugar had known through stories her parents had told her that Brittany had used to dance in her spare time, but her "Run the World" performance had been perfect.

And Santana… well, Sugar pretty much worshipped her now. She couldn't deny, the bitch was fierce. And while truthfully, she'd always gotten along better with Brittany as she'd grown up, solely because Brittany was kinder, now she found herself wanting to tag along with Santana wherever the older girl went. The only problem with that was that Santana didn't even know she existed beyond a couple brief conversations. She was even still calling her "Flour".

But it was only a matter of time, Sugar knew. She had planned it out, and, with her being flawless and all, her plans never failed. Mercedes would flip sides first, and then Santana and Brittany would come too. She would make sure of it.

* * *

><p>"This is Mercedes Jones, and she'll be joining our club, girls."<p>

"Hi, Mercedes," Sugar approached her with a smile, offering her hand palm-down for Mercedes to kiss and receiving a confused look in response. "As you'll recall, I'm Sugar, most robbed auditioner for anything ever of all time. Welcome to our club. We look forward to your minimal contributions as I repeatedly steal the spotlight."

Shelby stepped forward, forcing a smile as she put a hand on a frowning Mercedes' shoulder. "Now, girls, as I'm sure you're aware, Mercedes is an excellent singer. She has power in her voice that none of us can even begin to match-"

"Except me," Sugar input hastily. Shelby ignored her.

"-and she'll be a wonderful addition to our club. I want her to be treated with respect, alright?" She shot a look Sugar's way and the girl stared back innocently in response, before quickly beckoning Mercedes forward and hastily tugging her aside.

"Listen," Mercedes began defensively, "if you-"

"I have an idea, if you really want to win Sectionals against New Directions," Sugar informed her, cutting her off. Mercedes raised an eyebrow and Sugar knew she had her full attention. "We need to steal more members from them. No more playing clean, okay? Who do you think would be most likely to leave them, with a little convincing from us?"

Mercedes hesitated at that, holding back. "I don't know if that's-"

"Look, we're doing what we have to do to win," Sugar interrupted. "They didn't give you that role you rightfully deserved, they didn't let me into New Directions, and they keep giving all the solos to that girl with the big nose."

Mercedes raised an eyebrow at her, clearly a little offended on Rachel's part.

"Sorry, Aspergers. Anyway, this is our chance for revenge. Who's their weakest link?" She knew the answer already, but she needed Mercedes to say it aloud.

"I guess…it'd be Santana," Mercedes finally conceded. "I mean, she was already kicked out once, she can't stand Rachel… and I don't like the girl, but she's got an amazing voice."

"Plus she's got that friend of hers, right?" Sugar reminded her, trying to hide her own excitement at how well her plan was unfolding. "The one who can dance."

Mercedes looked to be buying it now. "Oh… that's right. Brittany and Santana are like a two-for-one deal."

"Right," Sugar confirmed solely. "If you can get Santana…"

"Then we get Brittany, too." Mercedes grinned and Sugar let herself smile back now. "Oh, we're definitely gonna crush them at Sectionals."

* * *

><p>Sugar peered around the corner from inside one of the nearby classrooms as Mercedes approached Santana from the opposite direction while Santana finished putting her books in her locker.<p>

"Hi Santana! How many solos did you get in glee club last year?"

"A few."

"One. Valerie. And I loved it."

"I was also the lips in Rocky Horror."

"Listen. If you and I were in Shelby's group we'd get all the solos _and _the duets."

Sugar went from practically bursting with joy, to pouting at Mercedes' choice of words there, but after a quick pause, she shrugged to herself and went back to listening. Whatever worked, she supposed would have to do. Santana didn't need to know yet that Sugar would obviously be getting most of the solos in the new club. That would come when it was too late for her to back out.

Mercedes and Santana were making their way down the hall now and Sugar had to struggle to hear them, especially with that lumbering brute from New Directions following them.

"You know, honestly I wish I could, but somebody's gotta look out for Brittany. I mean, that special place where she lives, yeah it's beautiful, but someone's gotta help her cross the street. I'd never just leave her."

Sugar grinned at that. Oh, they were so totally getting it on already. Done deal.

"Get her to come with you."

Hook, line, and sinker. Sugar had to remember to spare a solo for Mercedes sometime soon as thanks. Their club would have two new members in no time, now.

* * *

><p>The next day, Sugar found herself listening in on yet another conversation involving her moms, as she tended to do lately. Having little to no chances to interact with them herself yet, she'd taken to a bit of a creepier approach to get closer to them. Normally she denounced stalking, but hey, she'd been in Brittany's <em>womb<em> before so she figured a little bit of unauthorized close proximity wouldn't be toxic or anything. Besides, she wanted to keep an eye on Creepy Leprechaun Guy who had suddenly came out of nowhere and tried to throw a wrench in her parents' whole "eternally in love" thing. Sugar honestly took it personally, as he was basically indirectly attempting to prevent her birth from occurring.

So as it was, yet again she found herself in another classroom the next day, peeking out into the hallway.

"Brittany, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to eat dinner tonight?"

Sugar barely silenced a gasp. She was about to step out there and show Mr. Leprechaun a piece of her own mind, but Brittany began to respond before Sugar could attack the little pregnancy-pooper.

"Aw, I can't. I have plans with a friend."

De-nied.

Brittany left and Sugar silently pointed and laughed at the leprechaun, before hastily dashing off to her next class.

Their club had another practice at the end of the day, and while Sugar and Mercedes were disappointed to see that Brittany and Santana hadn't shown up, they busied themselves practicing with One, Two, and Three while Shelby coached them through different choreographed numbers and they memorized the lyrics of their songs. Finally, they were done, and Sugar approached Mercedes as she was packing up all of her things.

"Hey, so I mentioned I was new to Lima, right?"

Mercedes shot her a confused look. "Uh… no?"

"Well, I am. So I need help. Let's say I had a date. Where would I go?"

Mercedes gave her a sly look then. "Why? Do you have a date?"

"No, this is purely hypothetical, although if I were you I would obviously assume someone had asked me out too."

"Right," Mercedes replied with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, in a town as small as Lima, Breadstix is pretty much the place to go. If you're dating, you go there, and if you go there, chances are _someone _in your group is on a date."

"Thanks," Sugar said shortly, brushing past her and exiting the room.

If her hunch was right, her parents had a date tonight, and she was going to catch them in the act if it was the last thing she ever did.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: To the person asking, I don't ship Faberry (don't like them at all tbh) and they're irrelevant to this story, which is following canon anyway. I hope this won't dissuade you from continuing to read :)  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"Drive me to Breadstix."<p>

Al looked up from his dinner with furrowed eyebrows. "Now?"

"Yes. It's an emergency."

Al stared at her. "What could you possibly-?"

"I'm craving breadsticks."

There was a pause. "Is this… a _girl _thing that I-?"

"Yes," Sugar lied, raising an eyebrow simply.

Without another word, Al stood up and reached for his keys.

Upon arriving at Breadstix, Sugar silently crossed her fingers, said one last prayer that she'd be right and she'd shown up at the right time, and then told Al to wait five minutes for her before getting out of the car and going inside to order a quick serving of breadsticks.

She stepped into the restaurant and the greeter smiled at her and asked her if she was alone, but Sugar didn't reply, already searching the restaurant for those uniforms the Cheerios never seemed to remove. "Aha!" She declared upon spotting them, immediately ducking low and sneaking towards the appropriate booth while the greeter stared at her with surprise.

She was approaching Santana from the back and Brittany from the front, which was lucky for her considering High School Brittany was totally lacking a certain head organ from what Sugar could tell (not that she didn't still love her anyway), which meant there was less of a chance of being spotted this way.

"Excuse me, ma'am," a waitress called to her, but she ignored the woman and crept just a little further forward. She knew she was almost within earshot of her moms.

"…wish you'd hold my hand."

At hearing this, Sugar straightened up with surprise and nearly banged her head on a table she'd been ducking next to. Luckily, neither Brittany or Santana seemed to have noticed, and Sugar hastily turned and skedaddled out of there as quickly as she could, making a mad dash to Al's car. Or, as much of a mad dash as she could make in heels.

"That was fast. What'd you do with your breadsticks?" Al asked her once she was inside, clearly confused.

"Ate them all," Sugar replied. When he just stared at her, she waved him off and gestured forward. "Come on, let's go. Don't ask questions."

Al just sighed in response. "Alright, then."

With that, they drove home, Sugar struggling not to do a little dance in her seat while she sing-songed under her breath, "My parents are totally do-ing it, my parents are totally do-ing it," until she realized this was really not the best thing to be celebrating about.

Then again, phase one of her Ultimate Plan was complete: she'd reached the point in 2011 where her parents were one-hundred percent official.

Now she had to begin the real work: making them both comfortable with being open about it.

* * *

><p>She'd been brainstorming ideas for their group name for a while ("A Whole Motta Sugar" having been her favorite thus far) when the door to their practice room swung open and in walked Mercedes, followed directly afterward by Brittany and Santana. Sugar about peed her pants with excitement as she hurried over to them. Now was her time to shine. Now she would not only get solos, she'd get to prove to her parents how truly amazing she was. She'd be best friends with them and they'd support her and it would be totally perfect.<p>

"Awesome! More backup for me!"

Santana, however, didn't seem to be having it, as Sugar quickly realized.

"Okay, I did not just leave one diva-driven glee club to join another, so let me write you a reality check, Richie Bitch."

Sugar's face fell. Personally she preferred "Flour".

"I've seen what you can do, and what you can do is stand in the back, sway, and sing very, very quietly."

Sugar, once again, couldn't decide if she admired her mother's bitchiness or if it was a whole lot scarier and a lot less awesome when directed towards her. "I…um…just wanted to be on the winning team for once?"

That seemed to be enough for Santana, who thankfully toned down the attitude after quickly shoving Sugar aside. They decided on The Troubletones as their team name, and that was that. They were on their way to winning Sectionals, Sugar decided she'd settle for only half the solos rather than all of them, they kicked absolute ass with "Candyman", and Brittany and Santana were officially dating, unbeknownst to everyone but themselves and Sugar.

Everything was falling into place.

* * *

><p>"We should have a Troubletones sleepover," Sugar decided to announce at a practice a few weeks later, just as they were all getting ready to leave.<p>

"Why would we do that?" Santana asked her with a roll of her eyes, already motioning for Brittany so that they could go.

"Um… team bonding?" Sugar suggested. Honestly, she just wanted to spend more time with her parents, who mostly only talked to _each other_ during practices. Mercedes was right; they really were inseparable. It kind of sucked to be stuck on the outside when she wanted to hang out with them.

"You know, I kind of like that idea. The New Directions kids fight all the time," Mercedes agreed. "A team who hangs together, wins together. How about this weekend, Friday night, my house?"

"Britt and I are busy this weekend," Santana insisted, only to receive a gentle elbow in the ribs from Brittany afterward. "Um… I can cancel our plans, though. We'll be there."

"We have an underclassmen Cheerios competition this weekend," Two told them in explanation for the remaining three members, the other two of which nodded their sad agreement. "Next time we'll be there, though."

"Okay, so the four of us, then," Sugar piped up happily, throwing an arm around Mercedes' shoulders, who quickly shrugged it off. "It'll be fun!"

"So much fun," Santana deadpanned, leaving the room with a roll of her eyes. Brittany shot Sugar a shy smile before quickly following after her.

* * *

><p>Al got her to the sleepover on Friday without a hitch, and when Sugar arrived, Brittany and Santana were already there, sitting together on the couch while popcorn popped in the microwave and previews played on the television in front of them. "We're watching a movie," Mercedes told her dully as she was led into the living room. The popcorn beeped and Mercedes went to get it, and after a moment of hesitation, Sugar went to follow her.<p>

"Why, if you don't want to?"

"What Brittany and Santana want, Brittany and Santana get," Mercedes informed her, pulling a face. "Just sit somewhere where you can see the movie but not them, and don't look at them when you hear smacking noises, and you should be fine."

Sugar paused at that, wondering if she was supposed to take that the way it sounded. "Wait, what?"

"Brittany and Santana," Mercedes clarified. "Those two have been hooking up since sophomore year, girl. Brittany will sleep with anyone and Santana's into girls too, I guess. I don't know; I try not to get involve in anyone else's business, especially not theirs. The rest of us ignore it so you do the same, got it?"

"Wait, wait…" Sugar paused, trying to let everything sink in. "Everyone knows?"

"You picked up on it too already," Mercedes guessed knowingly. "Yeah, we all know they fool around. We don't make a big deal out of it, though. Won't be a big deal when they're both married to guys ten years from now, so…"

Mercedes dumped the popcorn into a bowl and left for the living room a moment later, and Sugar watched her go, frowning to herself. So people knew; they just weren't taken seriously. That explained the cutting off after high school. They got rid of anyone who could've been suspicious that they were in an actual relationship, which would've been any and all of their friends from high school.

Still frowning, Sugar entered the living room and put herself in a position to watch her parents out of the corner of her eye while her full attention was on the movie. It was "Mean Girls", and Sugar recognized it immediately. In 2031 it was a total classic.

Not long after the opening credits, Sugar caught movement out of the corner of her eyes and immediately grew curious. In their original past, she knew her moms made sure to never publicly act like a couple. That was evident from the pictures she'd seen. But Sugar had already majorly altered the past by getting them to join a new club away from most of their friends. Perhaps now that they weren't surrounded by people who knew them as well, they were starting to feel more comfortable being themselves without people worrying about them being suspicious.

"I'm gonna grab a water," Mercedes stated suddenly, catching everyone's attention. "Anyone want anything?"

Brittany asked for a soda and Mercedes nodded and left, and Sugar glanced back at her moms briefly before returning her attention to the movie. On the surface, her eyes were focused on the screen, but inwardly, she was deep in thought again.

If her moms were more comfortable showing affection when they were around people they didn't know as well, like at Breadstix or with The Troubletones, then…well, they certainly didn't know _Sugar_ very well. Not yet, anyway. So chances were…

A giggle came from the couch and Sugar's head jerked in that direction only to see a grinning Santana latch on to an equally smiley Brittany's wrist as though stilling it, and audibly whisper, "Don't do that!"

Brittany smirked at her and then Santana caught Sugar watching them and immediately released Brittany, her smile dying as she went back to watching the movie. Brittany looked confused at Santana's abrupt change in manner, but caught sight of Sugar a second later and almost mimicked Santana's reaction movement for movement. Sugar raised an eyebrow curiously at them, and Santana glanced back at her quickly one last time before seemingly becoming fully engrossed in the movie. Brittany glanced down to her hands as she picked at one of her nails, and the mood in the room suddenly turned somber.

"You know," Sugar piped up brightly as Mercedes entered the room, struggling to change things for the better. "I don't think we should watch a movie. We should play a game."

"What kind of game?" Mercedes replied, clearly disgruntled at having just gotten popcorn and drinks. She flicked the light on and Brittany and Santana immediately groaned and shielded their eyes.

"Um…" Sugar struggled to find a suitable answer, but she wasn't sure what had been played in 2011 and what hadn't.

"Do you have board games?" Brittany asked excitedly. "Or games that make noises? Or Twister?"

Mercedes looked amused now. "I do have Twister."

"Twister?" Sugar echoed, confused, and immediately realized her mistake a second later. What if that was a common game _everyone _knew about?

"You've never played Twister," Santana deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at her. Nervously, Sugar shook her head. "Alright…Mercedes, go get Twister. But only because I want to see Sugar make a fool out of herself."

So that was how, ten minutes later, Sugar found herself twisted up in a pretzel with Brittany and Santana in similar positions nearby while Mercedes worked the spinner. "Alright…right hand on green."

To Sugar's right, Brittany twisted around easily and ended up in somewhat of a crab-walk type position, while Santana ended up with an arm placed awkwardly between her own legs. Sugar wobbled as she tried to move her hand, then promptly collapsed on the floor, earning laughter from the rest of the three girls.

"Alright, it's between Brittany and Santana… _again_," Mercedes announced.

"We're totally awesome at this," Brittany told them, stating the obvious now that they were in their tenth round. "It's because of the Cheerios. We're super flexible."

"Really, it's the Cheerios that made you two flexible, huh?" Mercedes joked, to Sugar's surprise but the other two girls' amusement. It looked like Santana was even actually starting to enjoy their company.

"That's part of it," was her retort. Brittany grinned knowingly and Mercedes laughed as she flicked at the spinner and Sugar watched from over her shoulder. "Left hand on red."

The resulting move left Brittany in an even more spread-out crabwalk position, and Santana had to lean almost directly over her face to get her left hand in the right spot. She looked down at Brittany and let out a puff of air, then smiled. "You okay down there, Britt?"

"Kinda," Brittany replied, staring up at her and letting out an exhale of her own. Their eyes remained locked for several seconds and Brittany licked her lips. Something in the room changed for the second time that night, and Sugar and Mercedes watched them watch each other until Santana's head jerked up quickly and over to the audience she'd seemed to have forgotten they had. Her hand calmly came off of the red circle and she waved it to Sugar and Mercedes, her usual mask of emotions back up. "I'm out."

"Brittany wins. Again," Mercedes announced unnecessarily, the tension in the air still palpable.

"Let's play something different," Brittany suggested quietly while Santana moved away from her, and that was the end of Twister.

* * *

><p>"So he's like, <em>completely <em>drunk off of these lame wine coolers he didn't even have to steal from his parents; they were in the fridge because Puckerman's mom didn't even bother hiding them since it's so hard to even get a _buzz_… but anyway, I'm just laying there blinking at him while he flails around like a dead fish; half the time he's making out with the pillow-"

Sugar looked on with wide eyes, half-sure she was officially scarred for life as Santana recalled one of her worse hook-ups with Puck. Brittany was listening to the story from beside her with a tiny grin on her face, clearly having heard the story before, and Mercedes was literally dying with laughter beside Sugar.

"Oh, that's not even the best part. I was bored anyway so I just decided to find myself a seat somewhere else, sit back, and enjoy while Puckerman basically screwed a pillow. Like, literally. He took his pants off and talked dirty to it." Even Santana was laughing through her story now. "_Wine coolers!" _

"Tell them the rest," Brittany insisted, tapping her elbow, and Santana threw her a quick glance and a smile before facing the other two girls smugly. "Oh, and I got the whole thing on video. He's _still _paying me off monthly to keep me from showing it to the whole school. The earrings Britt's wearing? Total courtesy of Puck blackmail."

"You better get me something good on Christmas, then, Santana," Mercedes told her, still smiling widely.

"I got you, girl, I got you," Santana reassured her, nodding her agreement. "Anyway, someone else go. Mercedes?"

"Never kissed anyone but Shane," Mercedes told them with a shrug.

"Not even Sam?"

"Nah. We weren't together long enough."

"Lame," Santana replied while Mercedes shrugged her shoulders.

"What about you, Sugar?" Brittany asked her. Sugar flinched as suddenly all the attention was on her. "Have you hooked up with any guys at McKinley yet? Did you have a boyfriend at your old school?"

"Um…" So her parents wanted to know about her past hookups. This wouldn't be totally awkward and uncomfortable or anything. "Nope. Never kissed anyone," she lied hastily.

Santana raised an eyebrow disbelievingly, but Brittany looked sympathetic. "Aw. If it makes you feel any better, I'd _totally_ make out with you if I weren't-"

Her smile died in the middle of her sentence as she trailed off, and Sugar went from inwardly cringing at Brittany's hypothetical offer to feeling overwhelming embarrassment for Brittany and Santana. Mercedes looked confused for a moment as Brittany exchanged a panicked look with Santana, but Sugar jumped in before anyone could speak, "-straight?"

Now Mercedes was looking to Sugar with confusion, but Santana recovered and nodded quickly. "Yeah. Right, Britt?"

"…Right," Brittany mumbled quietly, her eyes on the ground.

Mercedes watched them both suspiciously for a long moment, then finally opened her mouth. "Look, are you two-?"

"Tired?" Santana cut off quickly, ignoring Mercedes' obvious offended reaction at having been interrupted. "Yes. So we should all just go to bed now. Where are we sleeping?"

Mercedes looked disgruntled for a moment, but gave in with a sigh. "I'm sleeping in my bed. I figured Sugar could have the couch in here and we could set up a pallet on the floor for you two."

"Fine. Let's do that then. Where are your blankets?" Santana questioned harshly, and Sugar looked on with a frown as the other three girls set about working on getting their beds made up.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry about the longer-than-usual wait! Huge project due soon I've been needing to work on. Also, not gonna lie, I laughed a lot at all the reviews talking about Sugar being so scarred by this past chapter, solely because I already knew how much worse it was going to get!**

**PS: I'm in love with Vanessa Lengies, by the way, and if you're not then lbr something is wrong with your head. She has beyond embraced Future!Sugar and Brittanababy!Sugar as her headcanon. Fanfic under her penname (c'mon, you totally know she's created an account here by now) should start popping up any minute now at this point tbh.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Sugar shifted imperceptibly from her spot on the couch and turned her head, staring over at the small clock radio placed just under the living room television. It read: 2:00 a.m.<p>

Sighing quietly at her own inability to go to sleep, Sugar let her eyes flutter shut as she considered the events of the night. She'd grown up in a time where being gay was accepted, the people who were prejudiced were the ones in the minority, and most people believed gay people were born that way, as opposed to a time where homosexuality was highly controversial. It hadn't really dawned on her until now how truly different things were in 2031. Brittany had looked so sad, and Santana so humiliated. And they had gone through years of denying and hiding in the version of their lives that Sugar hadn't changed. She couldn't even fathom how much effort it had to have taken and how miserable they had to have been. It must've been pure torture.

She was still mulling this over ten minutes later when a whisper drifted over from across the room, catching Sugar's attention. "Santana?"

A few seconds passed, and then a whispered response: "Yeah?"

"…Are you awake?"

There was a soft chuckle. "Yeah. I'm awake."

"I can't sleep."

Sugar's head was turned fully towards them now in the darkness, and she listened carefully as a long pause followed.

"…Can _you _sleep, Santana?"

"Nope. That'd be why I'm awake."

Sugar heard the sound of movement beneath blankets and immediately tensed, her hands already halfway up to her ears. She wanted them together and all but "hear parents have sex" was on her list of things she hoped to never do, ever.

But instead, she heard Brittany whisper, "Come on," and a second later Brittany had convinced Santana to get up and follow her out of the room. Sugar closed both of her eyes and kept them that way until she was sure they had left, then carefully got up herself and tiptoed to where she thought they'd gone.

The resulting path led her to the back door, and she peeked out into the yard behind Mercedes' house to see Brittany moving to take a seat on the grass in the distance, her hand joined with Santana's as they both shifted closer together and then laid down. Brittany wrapped an arm around Santana and Santana scooted even closer until she could rest her head on Brittany's chest. Sugar watched as Brittany's arm lifted so she could play with Santana's hair while they looked up at the stars together. She was too far away to make out any words but she could vaguely hear the low rumble of their voices traveling across the yard, and every now and then Brittany's free arm would raise to point up at the sky, or she'd hear the sound of a giggle.

Sugar didn't start feeling creepy until they stopped talking completely and just laid together in silence, and just as the guilt crept up into her chest for intruding on such a private moment, Santana raised her head slightly to make eye contact with Brittany for a few moments, then shifted her body so she was half on top of her, leaned down, and gently joined their lips together. Her hand cupped Brittany's cheek and Brittany's arm tightened where it was wrapped around Santana, then flexed as Brittany pulled Santana over to completely straddle her. Sugar's eyes widened and she instinctively lifted her hands to cover them, and then, after a few seconds, spread two fingers out slowly so she could peek through.

They were still kissing, but it was heavier, longer, and with a lot more enthusiasm, and Sugar pulled a face as Santana leaned back, pulled Brittany up into a sitting position, and then promptly reached down and helped Brittany tug her shirt up and off.

"Gross!" Sugar whispered, shocked. "On the grass? Really? Doesn't that burn? Isn't it like carpet?"

Santana's shirt was off by now and Sugar was abruptly jolted out of her thoughts when she saw the bras were about to come off too. Time to go.

She practically fled back to the couch and then quickly tucked herself back under the covers, struggling not to think about what was happening in the back yard. She held back a shudder and then forced her eyes shut, settling down deeper into the blankets and trying, once again, to go to sleep.

* * *

><p>The next morning they all converged in the kitchen for breakfast courtesy of Mercedes' mother, and Sugar busied herself with her waffles while Mercedes and Santana enjoyed their bagels and Brittany practically dumped an entire bottle of chocolate syrup onto a large stack of pancakes. Sugar couldn't stop her eyes from straying to the two Cheerios every once in a while, and around the time Brittany was polishing off her fourth pancake and Santana was reaching for the second half of her bagel, one of Sugar's glances coincided with Santana's own look to Sugar, and the older girl finally barked out, "<em>What?"<em>

Sugar picked up on the defensiveness and paranoia in Santana's tone immediately. Santana had noticed her weird behavior, and she was clearly worried Sugar had possibly seen them the night before. "Nothing," she mumbled hastily, looking back down to her food, and Santana went back to her own breakfast with a roll of her eyes.

Sugar knew it'd be best not to call them out on their relationship, especially not in front of Mercedes. That would only result in…

Well, Sugar actually wasn't sure what that would result in. Santana certainly wasn't coming out on her own with the way things were currently, and Brittany's disappointment with the whole situation was growing more and more obvious each day, at least to Sugar, who was probably the only one paying close enough attention to notice. Maybe a tiny push in the right direction from Sugar would change things. Maybe if she let them know _she _knew, and Santana saw that someone knowing wouldn't be the end of the world, she'd make the decision to let everyone _else _know too.

Smiling to herself at this revelation, Sugar made her decision. Next Monday, she, Santana, and Brittany were all going to have a little talk.

* * *

><p>The Troubletones' next practice ended with a heavily choreographed practice performance of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love", and Sugar was so exhausted afterward that she completely forgot about her plan until the very second she saw Santana and Brittany leaving the room.<p>

"Mo-!" She began frantically, before quickly correcting, "Uh, Santana! Wait!"

The girl in question paused with Brittany at her side, then turned towards Sugar with one eyebrow raised and an expression full of disinterest.

"What do you want, Butter?"

"To talk," Sugar told them nervously, watching the rest of the Troubletones carefully as they all slowly evacuated the room one by one until only Sugar, Brittany, Shelby, and Santana remained.

"Good practice, girls," Shelby complimented as she finished packing up her things and left the room. Santana nodded at her in acknowledgement and Brittany forced a smile. The door shut behind Shelby and Santana immediately crossed her arms, facing Sugar.

"Alright, make it quick. Britts and I have somewhere to be."

Sugar bit her lip, suddenly not so sure how to go about this now that she'd gotten them alone. She didn't know how to begin without sounding like a total bitch. "Um…I…"

"D-D-duh u-uh," Santana stuttered out mockingly, getting impatient now. "Spit it out."

Sugar shot her a hurt glare. "Fine. I… I just thought I should let you know that I saw you two on Friday night."

Brittany immediately looked to Santana, and Sugar watched as just the tiniest flicker of horror appeared and then vanished in the expression on Santana's face. It was gone as quickly as it had come, and was barely noticeable in the first place unless it was being looked for. Luckily, Sugar was looking.

After a long pause, Santana just shifted her weight to the other foot, then shrugged apathetically. "So?"

Sugar's eyebrows furrowed. "So… I know about what's going on with you two. I'm not stupid. I know what hooking up looks like."

"What a surprise, considering you're so lame you've never done it yourself," Santana countered venomously. "Yeah, we hook up. So what? Other people know too; just ask Mercedes. It doesn't mean anything."

Brittany tilted her head down towards the ground at that, a frown pulling at the corners of her lips, and Sugar straightened up proudly, her courage returning at the sight of a clearly wounded Brittany.

"Well, that's the difference between me and everyone else. I don't buy that. I know you're together and it does mean something. To both of you. Nothing gets past Sugar Motta, so don't even try to hide it."

Santana rolled her eyes and laughed. "Yeah, right; what are you on? Do I _look _gay to you? Does Britt?"

"I didn't know people could _look_ gay," Sugar replied, her own aggravation growing now. Brittany's jaw was clenched and her eyes were still on the floor, her lips turned down at the corners. She looked so, so sad.

"Whatever. Look, we like _boys_, okay? We like making out _with _boys and _for _boys. Brittany told you she was straight and so am I. And I don't know who you think you are but-"

"Santana, _look _at your _girlfriend_," Sugar demanded loudly, cutting her off so unexpectedly and uncharacteristically that Santana was stunned into silence. Sugar watched her take a deep, heavy breath, as though she was fighting an internal battle with herself, and then, slowly, her eyes moved to Brittany. Their gazes locked and Sugar witnessed the most intense silent conversation she'd ever seen before: full of disappointment, sadness, fear, humiliation, love.

Their eye contact finally broke and Santana faced Sugar again, her jaw tensed and her arms still crossed. "…What do you want?" she eventually growled out.

Sugar was taken aback, and offended. "I don't _want _anything. I just thought you should know that I know, and I'm okay with it. And… I think a lot of other people would be too. You don't have to hide."

"Look, Mother Teresa, that crap might fly on whatever strange planet you came here from, but this is Lima, Ohio. Take a big huge dose of reality and sit your obnoxious ass down."

This was definitely not going the way she'd expected. "I just wanted to help."

"Yeah, well, you need to mind your own business."

"Santana," Brittany cut in quietly, and Sugar watched some of anger leave Santana's face almost immediately. She sighed to herself and ignored Brittany, but her next words had a little less bite.

"How Britt and I live our lives has nothing to do with you, so just stay out of this. What do you want in exchange for not telling?"

Sugar looked up at her with surprise. "Huh? I wouldn't-"

"Uh, huh, yeah, sure. I'm not taking any risks with this. I'm blackmailing Puckerman, remember? I know how it works. What do you want? This way if you go back on your word and tell, I have even more of a justification to rip you and your annoying voice and your blabbing mouth to pieces. Now spit it out."

Sugar opened and closed her mouth silently, her eyes on her feet now. "I… I just-"

"Santana," Brittany interrupted again, more harshly this time. Santana, who had clearly been about to snap at Sugar again, closed her mouth and turned away, clearly upset. "Stop being mean to her. She just wants us to be able to be like every other couple at McKinley." Sugar looked up as Brittany approached her, taking a little comfort in the small smile she received when Brittany was standing in front of her. Santana looked on bitterly as Brittany gently told Sugar, "It sucks to have to keep secrets and I hate it, but I'm doing it because it's what makes Santana happy right now, and when she's happy, I'm happy. So we're not gonna tell anyone until Santana's ready. But thank you for trying to help."

"You're welcome," Sugar replied quietly, still refusing to meet her eyes directly.

There was a pause while Brittany seemed to think about something for a moment. Finally, she told Sugar, "Hey, Santana and I were supposed to go out for ice cream together right after practice. Do you wanna come with us? We can drive you home, too. I know you eat lunch alone and stuff, so… we could totally use a new friend."

Santana watched the whole exchange incredulously, and even mouthed, "Hell no!" to Brittany as Sugar's expression immediately turned hopeful.

"Really? We can be friends?"

"Totally. We'll make sure you fit right in at McKinley, and you just make sure you keep me and Santana a secret. Then we'll all be, like, even more happier. Okay?"

Sugar bit her lip, glancing from Brittany's smiling face to Santana's frowning one. So they weren't going to be outing themselves any time soon. Sugar knowing hadn't changed anything. She couldn't make things better for them by letting them know she supported them, and one spoken opinion couldn't change Santana's mind. Sugar realized right then that she wasn't going to be the person who cleared the path to let her mothers be who they really were. It just wasn't going to happen.

But maybe, just maybe, being their supportive friend would be the next best thing.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Getting into "M****ash-Off" now! Lots of dodgeball in this chapter. I'm actually really excited for when it's time for me to do away with canon and come up with my own head-canon in place of _most_ of "I Kissed a Girl" (abuela scene is a must-have, obviously). ****Doesn't seem like I'm going to finish this whole story by tomorrow as I expected, though****, so I'm not sure how I'll incorporate the canon from the upcoming Sectionals episode yet.**

* * *

><p>A little less than a week later, Sugar felt like she was on top of the world. First, her moms had treated her to ice cream the day she'd confronted them about their relationship, <em>and <em>they'd let her start sitting at lunch with the rest of the Troubletones. Then, three days after _that_, she'd gotten an invite from them to a house party being hosted by one of the Cheerios (Al had forbid her from going, but still, it was the invite itself that had counted). And now, one night later, on a Saturday night, much to Santana's chagrin, Sugar found herself in Santana's bedroom, watching Brittany down soda after soda while Brittany and Santana sat on the bed and Sugar was perched on a chair across the room. It was another sleepover, but this time it was just the three of them. No Mercedes, and no secrets.

Well, no _sexuality_-related secrets, anyway.

A movie was playing on the television positioned near Sugar, but their attention had been slowly waning for the past fifteen minutes, until finally Santana cleared her throat, attracting the gazes of the other two girls. Her own eyes were on Sugar. "So, um… exactly how much did you see last weekend?" she asked, looking very much like this was something that had been bothering her all week.

Sugar wrinkled her nose. "Ew, totally not anything serious. I got out of there once I saw you kissing." Santana looked a little relieved and Brittany just bit her lip to hide a smile while Sugar added, "Oh, by the way: definitely not sharing a room with both of you this time when we go to sleep."

"Oh, trust me, we wouldn't let you," Santana assured her with a sarcastically sympathetic look. "Wouldn't want to taint your pitiful innocence, would we?"

"Okay, I'm only fifteen anyway," Sugar reminded her, long past regretting lying about her experience with boys. "So being completely virginal is not that weird. And I'm totally hot so I could kiss someone if I wanted. I'm just too good for everyone else."

"Keep telling yourself that, Vanilla."

"You're going to run out of cookie ingredients eventually," Sugar told her matter-of-factly, without a single hesitation. Spending more time with Santana recently was leaving her much more prepared for the personal attacks. "And when you do, you'll pause when you try to think of a new way to insult me, and it'll be awkward, and then I'll laugh at you and you'll feel stupid."

Brittany giggled and the corners of Santana's lips twitched upward as she struggled to avoid having a similar reaction. "Whatever."

They all fell silent again for a few moments, until Brittany tipped over abruptly and collapsed into the pillows on the bed, her arms spread out while she stared up at the ceiling with a smile on her face. "I think I drank too much soda. I feel all tingly."

Santana raised an eyebrow and poked at Brittany's nearby bare foot, and it jerked in response and kicked at her hand while Brittany snorted.

"That tickled."

"You're such a loser," Santana laughed out lightly, tapping her foot a second time and catching it when Brittany kicked again.

"But you loooove me," she sang out, using her free hand to reach for a discarded half-full soda can while Santana rolled her eyes and watched Brittany's toes wiggle. Sugar watched them from across the room, trying hard not to grin at them as Santana spoke again.

"Your feet are so gross."

"Your _face_ is so gross."

Santana raised an eyebrow simply and Brittany grinned.

"No, just kidding; it's hot."

"Okay, you have officially had too much sugar." She plucked the soda can from Brittany's grip and set it back down on her nightstand. "As a matter of fact, I think we _both _have had too much Sugar this past week," she added, throwing a glance Sugar's way and receiving an unamused look in response.

"Aw, I like her," Brittany argued, smiling over at Sugar, who had just opened a soda of her own. "She reminds me of us."

"How?" Santana asked incredulously while Sugar nearly spit out her first sip of soda at Brittany's comment. "She's a completely out-there, vaguely delusional, super-entitled rich _brat_." Sugar pouted at that, and Santana's indignant expression suddenly went lax. "Oh God, you _are_ us, aren't you?"

"If you insist," Sugar replied quietly, swallowing hard to get the rest of her sip of soda down and struggling to hide another smile.

* * *

><p>"What are you doing here?"<p>

Sugar looked on as the unofficial leaders of the Troubletones, Mercedes and Santana, confronted Finn and Rachel, who were standing with the rest of New Directions just across the stage in the auditorium. Her cell phone was gripped loosely in her hand as she texted Al that she'd be getting home late that night. Brittany had invited her out for coffee with herself and Santana that afternoon. Sugar was beginning to suspect that despite Brittany being consistently friendly to her, the girl's real reason for wanting Sugar's constant presence was that she enjoyed getting to hold hands with Santana while someone else was around. When they were alone with Sugar, it was the closest they ever got to behaving like an out couple.

Sugar returned her attention to the confrontation in time to watch her mom finish chewing out Finn Hudson. "See, the Troubletones are 3F: fierce, femme, phenomenal." Santana spun around abruptly, suddenly looking cheerful, and Sugar's eyes widened in surprise, having not expected such a swift change in demeanor. "Oh, and guys, hurry up; go get some moist towels. We have to keep Finn wet before we can roll him back in the sea."

Moist towels? Well, if she insisted…

Sugar turned to obey Santana's command, as she'd become inclined to do recently, but was quickly prevented from leaving by one of the Cheerios standing behind her. Meanwhile, Will and Shelby stepped out and began a rousing "You and I" mashup devised to inspire a mash-off between the two clubs. Sugar spent most of it off in her own little world, dancing and already running through pre-future songs the Troubletones could use (her voice would've totally kicked ass on "Glitter and Alcohol" though), but she also caught a few glimpses of looks exchanged between her moms, and she was pretty sure Santana even grinned and pointed at Brittany during one of the lyrics. It was definitely progress.

* * *

><p>"Can you believe he called me an ass-less J-Lo?" Santana laughed out in the locker room after school while Brittany pulled on a black shirt beside her and Sugar shyly changed her pants in the corner. The rest of the Troubletones and the girls from New Directions were all in the gym already, warming up for the impromptu dodgeball game that had been scheduled by Finn and Santana earlier that day.<p>

"I know, right?" Brittany replied with a giggle, reaching up to fix her ponytail once she had her shirt on. "Your ass is amazing."

"Finn's such a loser," Santana agreed while Sugar looked on curiously. "There's pretty much nothing he could say to me that wouldn't just end up making him look even _more _pathetic than he already does. Especially after we kick his ass at his own requested method of ass-kicking."

"Does getting hit with dodgeballs hurt?" Sugar asked tentatively, gaining their attention and trying to not seem too nervous. She hoped this wasn't another game she was supposed to know how to play.

"Great, so you've never played dodgeball, either," Santana sighed out, rolling her eyes in frustration. "Look, just do what I do, alright? And don't get hit."

"Okay," Sugar agreed, swallowing hard and then following them out to the gym.

Finn blew a whistle as soon as they arrived, and while Santana took her time intimidating him a little bit more, Sugar watched the leprechaun kid Rory approach the center of the gym with the question, "Excuse me, I've never heard of this game of dodging balls before; what's the rules?"

Sugar perked up a little, still harboring resentment for the boy himself, but thankful that he'd given her an opportunity to learn something about the game before they started.

"Don't die," Puck told him, making Sugar swallow hard yet again. Brittany stepped in front of her to face the other team and Sugar modified her expression immediately when she recognized it was time for the rest of the Troubletones to take a crack at intimidating the other team. She decided to perform the silent "I will cut you" intimidation technique used in the future, while Brittany punched her palm and then stepped back to turn on the radio. Oh, they were going to sing, too? Sugar tried to keep the fresh wave of nervousness she felt from showing on her face. Was there choreography she'd been supposed to learn? Should she ask one of her moms about it?

"Let's do this."

Too late.

They all gathered into a huddle as instructed by Santana while New Directions did the same. Santana only had one order for the Troubletones: "Kill them."

With all the death references, Sugar was seriously beginning to worry for her own life.

_Hit me with your best shot  
>Why don't you hit me with your best shot?<br>I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha_

They all broke away after a few jumps in the huddle, and after noticing the smiles on the rest of the girls' faces, Sugar decided that it couldn't be _that _dangerous. Besides, if she had to go _somehow_, in the middle of playing a game with teenage past versions of her mothers and their peers seemed to be an awesome way to do it.

Everyone ran forward to grab a ball, so she followed their lead, and Sugar got the gist of it pretty quickly, unlike Rory, who seemed totally lost. She chucked a ball at Blaine and it hit, while a ball from Brittany thrown from beside Sugar just barely missed Tina.

"Nice!" Brittany complimented her, high-fiving her before racing to go retrieve another ball. Sugar grinned widely at the compliment before a revenge ball from Kurt narrowly missed her head. She let out a tiny squeal and hurried away from the action as Artie raced right through the middle of it all with Mike pushing his wheelchair. Quinn flung a ball Brittany's way but it hit the fingertips of one of the other Cheerios instead, causing her to earn a taunt from Quinn as she went to take a seat. Brittany threw a ball a moment later that hit Quinn straight in the chest, and Sugar laughed loudly as she clutched one to her own stomach, using it to deflect a ball from Artie a moment later.

Santana, meanwhile, was practically an animal. She caught a ball from Rory to bring the Cheerio back in, had already hit several New Directions members including Mike, Puck, and Rachel (who'd all been brought back in at some point by caught balls, mostly thrown by the other two junior Cheerios). Brittany was doing almost as well; Sugar watched as her and one of the Cheerios flipped in midair with no hands and then both chucked their dodgeballs across the room at lightning speed. A moment later, Brittany dodged a ball from Mike and taunted him by sticking out her tongue. Santana hit both Puck and Rachel, and then Brittany and Mercedes formed a blockade around her as she calmly walked toward the center of the gym, dodgeball rolling around in her hands. Sugar took the opportunity to hit Quinn directly in the face while she was distracted, then giggled at the girl's misfortune as she chucked a second ball at Kurt. He took his seat on the bench next to Mike when it connected, who had also just been hit.

The game went on. Balls were caught and people were hit, leaving the players on both teams shuffling on and off the court at an even rate, until finally, there were only three left on both sides: Brittany, Santana, and Sugar vs. Finn, Quinn, and Rory. Santana went after the weak link first, hitting him right on the ass as he tried to run to the back of the court, and Sugar succumbed to amusement again and pointed and laughed at him openly, only to be nailed in the stomach by a ball from Quinn. "Ow!"

She went to take a seat while Santana used the opportunity to quickly hit an unprotected Quinn in the thigh, and Finn immediately mirrored her move and threw his ball at her while she had nothing to defend herself with. Brittany dived sideways with cat-like reflexes and took it in the shoulder, then quickly tossed her ball to a surprised Santana while Finn scrambled to find a dodgeball of his own. Brittany jogged off of the court as Finn and Santana squared off against each other, the only ones remaining in the game now. Without warning, Santana reared back and threw the ball, two-handedly, right at Finn's face. He barely had time to react before it connected dead-center, his eyes widening in surprise. The Troubletones had won.

They gathered near Santana to celebrate as the whistle blew, jumping up and down, high-fiving, and cheering. Sugar still had a ball tucked under her arm, as did one of the Cheerios, and when Rory ran up to comment on how rough the game had been in some weird Irish terms none of them had ever heard of before, Santana laughed, took the ball from the Cheerio, and threw it at him.

Sugar was immediately alert. The game wasn't over yet?

She took the ball in her own hands and immediately copied Santana along with the Cheerios, jumping up and down with glee when Rory was repeatedly hammered by every single ball thrown. They'd won again!

Just to be sure, she grabbed another ball and nailed him right in the back where he crouched while Santana laughed her approval loudly and shot a grin Sugar's way. Kurt hurried to Rory's side a moment later, and Sugar's smile immediately faded when she realized Rory's nose was bleeding.

"Maybe that's how the others treat us around here, but we don't do this to each other," Kurt reprimanded. "We're better than this."

"God, calm down, Grandma," Santana retorted as Kurt led Rory away, the mood officially killed. Santana rolled her eyes and took to the locker rooms while Sugar hurried to catch up with her, eager to cheer everyone up again. She didn't even fully understand what had just transpired in the first place, after all.

"At least we still won!"

"Whatever" Santana replied, sighing as Sugar fell into step beside her and Brittany joined them on her other side. "This whole thing was lame, anyway. We'll find another way to show Finn we're better than him and his band of socially-challenged rejects. Let's just go get coffee."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Not a happy chapter :(**

* * *

><p>"Why don't we break up Finn and the Hobbit?"<p>

"I don't know," Brittany replied nervously, looking over at Santana from the seat next to her while Sugar sat across from both of them, gently stirring her coffee with a spoon. "Don't you think that's a little mean?"

"Yeah, what if someone tried to break you and Brittany up?" Sugar input. She didn't like Finn very much from what she'd seen of him, but Rachel was beginning to grow on her.

Santana laughed. "Oh, please. I would endz them before they could even say 'oops'. Did you not see what I did to Irish McShamrockPants when he made a move on Britt with all that 'wish' crap?"

"He liked me?" Brittany cut in, stunned. "I thought he just wanted to get into my pot of gold."

Santana put a hand on her arm gently, trying to break the news sympathetically. "He thought it was a metaphor for between your legs, honey. Not that it was the actual pot of chocolate coins you collected when we went trick-or-treating on Halloween."

Brittany glanced down between her legs briefly, then wrinkled her nose. "Ew, gross. He's like, twelve." Then her eyes widened in realization. "Hey, _that's_ why you hate him… you thought he was gonna steal me away so you tried to scare him. That's so cute."

Santana immediately turned defensive, glaring across the table at Sugar when she heard her snicker. "Oh, shut up." She faced Brittany. "And it's not cute, okay? Going Lima Heights is never cute."

"It's cute when you do it," Brittany insisted, leaning over and bumping Santana's shoulder with hers while obviously enjoying the embarrassed flush she was causing to crawl up Santana's face. "You're like my knight in shining armor but with boobs. Which is even better."

"Look, this is so…" Santana barely got out, waving Brittany's statements away while Sugar and Brittany shared knowing grins at her expense, "…whatever, look, we're supposed to be coming up with a way to destroy Finn and New Directions. You two keep brainstorming; I need a bathroom break." She looked around to make sure there was no one nearby, then leaned over and pecked Brittany on the corner of her mouth before slipping out of her seat and heading to the bathroom. Brittany's grin immediately returned as she watched her go, and Sugar raised an eyebrow at her until she finally turned away and they locked eyes again.

"She's never done that before," Brittany mused happily, sliding her coffee from hand to hand on the table. "You're like our safe place now. It used to be when we were alone in private, but now it's like… we get to add whenever we're with just you to the list too."

Sugar felt her cheeks getting warm and her heart thrumming happily in her chest as she broke the eye contact and took a sip of her drink, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"…Well, I _am_ awesome like that," she finally replied.

* * *

><p>The next afternoon found Sugar calling Al on her new phone again to let him know she was coming home late for the day, and just as she was about to hang up, Al chimed in from the other end, sounding out of breath, <em>"Wait<em>."

The Troubletones were waiting inside their usual practice room, and Sugar quickly grew annoyed. They were beckoning her to join them, including Brittany and Santana. "What? I have to go."

"_I just thought you might want to know that the generator's coming along really well,"_ Al informed her. _"I should be done even earlier than I originally finished it at this rate."_

Sugar paused at that. "…Oh. Great."

He must've sensed the disappointment in her tone, because he sighed on the other end. _"Look, Sugar, I don't know who these friends you're always hanging out with are, but you have to remember to not get too attached. Frankly, it was probably a bad idea for me to allow _them_ to get attached to _you_, but as you know, I thought it'd be best to put you in school to help you pass the time. But now might be a good time to start distancing yourself in preparation for leaving soon."_

"Whatever," Sugar replied quickly, ending the call and trying to clear her head as she entered the room to join the club. "Why the emergency meeting?" she asked when she was inside. "Are we finally dividing up solos for Sectionals? How many do I have?"

"Mercedes called this meeting, actually," Shelby told her, smiling slightly when Sugar deflated and rolled her eyes. "But while we wait for her to arrive, why don't we work on some vocal exercises? Now, repeat after me, girls…"

They'd barely started warming up when Mercedes entered the room, placing her stuff down and calling for their attention. "Ladies! Vocal warm-ups can wait. I was up half the night thinking about our mash-up for the mash-off, and it came to me: Adele."

Sugar gasped. Even in 2031 everyone knew who Adele was. She was perfect. "I sound just like her."

The rest of the club echoed their agreement, but Santana chimed in last with, "And now that we have that decision out of the way, I can stay focused on my one-sided battle of wits with the knuckle-dragger."

"Santana," Mercedes cut in. "The dodgeball thing was fun until the end, but enough."

Sugar looked on uncomfortably as they began to argue.

"Oh no, honey, I'm just getting started."

"I'm the leader of this group, and I'm telling you: Lay off those guys."

It was like watching a tennis match. Sugar turned away from Mercedes and looked to her mom, wondering what she'd do next and how many of Mercedes' body parts they'd be able to locate afterwards.

"I'm sorry," Santana retorted, brushing past Sugar to step in front of Mercedes. "The leader? Who died and made you queen, Aretha?"

"_I _brought you guys in-" Sugar almost opened her mouth to cut in there, because _hello_, that was totally _her _idea, but Mercedes pressed on and Sugar decided it'd probably be better for her not to get involved if she wanted to live. "-and _I _came up with the idea for our mash-up while you were wasting time trying to figure out how to make Finn Hudson cry. So, I nominate myself as president of the Troubletones; all in favor?"

Sugar's hand shot up instantly. If Mercedes had the ability to put _Santana _in her place, she definitely didn't want to know what the diva could do to _her_.

Once they'd officially appointed Mercedes leader and Santana had grudgingly returned to her spot next to Brittany, Mercedes tried to soften the blow by letting her know, "You are a star member of this group, and you need to represent."

Santana still didn't look like she'd been convinced to give up her crusade against Finn, and Sugar watched as the one person who _could _convince her leaned over, placed her lips near Santana's ear, and gently sang, "Stop the violence…"

Apparently it was some kind of inside joke Sugar hadn't been around long enough to get, because Santana and Brittany both immediately cracked up, and a second later Santana was telling them all she'd be so nice that cotton candy would melt in her mouth.

Sugar had never seen one person so _whipped_ before in her entire life, honestly.

* * *

><p>The next day, Sugar was happily strolling along past the girls' bathroom on her way to her last class of the day, mentally running through the choreography for their mash-up, when a hand suddenly shot out and grabbed her wrist, yanking her inside before she could let out so much as a squeak. A second later, her back had hit the wall hard and she was face to face with a fuming Santana. "Who else did you tell?"<p>

"Huh?" Sugar replied feebly, still focused on her throbbing back.

"Me and Brittany," Santana snapped back, barely able to take in even breaths as she glared daggers at Sugar, who didn't dare move even an inch. "Who else did you tell about me and Brittany? Who else did you tell about how I feel about her?"

Sugar gaped at her for a moment, stunned. "I-… I didn't tell anybody! I would never t -"

"Then why does Finn know?" Santana interrupted, looking down to her feet suddenly as her anger ebbed and was immediately replaced with melancholy. "How could he tell that-?" She trailed off, then sniffed quietly and turned away, placing her back to Sugar.

Sugar pushed herself away from the wall with a wince, taking a step closer to Santana nervously. "That's not a bad thing," Sugar input quietly, afraid Santana would snap at her again. "You guys just really love each other, and anyone who's open-minded enough to look for it can see it. There's nothing wrong with-"

Santana crossed her arms as she faced Sugar again, abruptly cutting her off. "Oh, yeah? Tell that to the other thousand kids at this school who are going to know about me now, all because Finn Hudson couldn't handle being called fat and decided to shout my feelings out in the middle of a crowded hallway for everyone to hear."

Sugar didn't know what to say to that. Her heart had sunk down into her ankles. She couldn't even begin to imagine what her mother was going through. "I'm…I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well…" Santana dismissed, refusing to look at her. "I'm sure that when everyone's found out in a couple days and won't stop mocking Britt and I, I'll look back on this moment and really _appreciate _your sympathy. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go tell my girlfriend my worst nightmare has come true thanks to a guy with blubber for skin." She brushed past Sugar, wiping at her cheeks, and Sugar leaned against the wall when the sound of Santana's footsteps had faded away, her expression one of utter guilt and her mind still reeling.

* * *

><p>Things were more subdued on Santana and Brittany's parts during Troubletones practice that day, and if it wasn't already clear <em>before<em> that Santana had informed Brittany of what had happened with Finn, it was_ definitely_ clear when Brittany pulled Sugar aside during one of their breaks and whispered, "You promise you didn't tell?"

"I was never gonna tell anyone," Sugar assured her, glancing to Santana as she talked with Mercedes across the room. The only good news to come from the whole incident was that apparently fewer students had heard than Santana had originally thought, which meant the rumors about Santana's sexuality and about her and Brittany were spreading at slow enough rates that it hadn't seemed to reach the Troubletones yet.

Brittany frowned as Sugar looked back at her, and after a moment, she sighed and nodded her agreement. "Okay. I believe you. I don't know if _Santana_ does, but… I do."

"Thank you," Sugar whispered quietly, watching Brittany leave her to go back to Santana.

"Alright girls, back to work!" Shelby declared a moment later, and Sugar immediately threw herself fully into the learning the choreography for their "Rumor Has it/Someone Like You" mash-up. She may not have been able to change what Finn had done to Santana, but she _could _help her moms and the rest of the Troubletones crush him at the mash-off in revenge.

* * *

><p>Twenty-four hours later, Sugar was examining herself in the mirror in the practice room, extremely pleased with Shelby's choice of dress for her, when Mercedes sidled up beside her to look at her own reflection as well. The older girl glanced behind them while Sugar patted at her own stomach, then, seeming to decide that the coast was clear, leaned over and whispered, "Hey, do you know anything about what's been up with Brittany and Santana lately?"<p>

Sugar looked like a deer in headlights for about two seconds, but Mercedes' eyes were back on her own reflection again and luckily she appeared not to have noticed. "Um, no. Why?"

"Well, they've been distracted during practices these past couple days, and they're the only ones not in here yet," Mercedes pointed out. "Plus, I, uh… well, there's this weird rumor I heard today that Santana-"

"Brittany! There you are!" Shelby called out behind them, distracting both Sugar and Mercedes, who turned to see Brittany enter the room, a small smile on her face at having been acknowledged. "We were afraid we'd lost our star dancer there for a moment. Your dress is right over there on the rack." Brittany nodded and went to go look at the dress, and Shelby frowned suddenly. "Wait, is Santana with you?"

"Oh, um…" Brittany trailed off, then shook her head somewhat guiltily. "I told her to stop being so mean to Finn, but…" She bit her lip. "She got called to Coach Sylvester's office on our way here. I waited for her for a little bit but when she didn't come out right away I came here. I don't know how much trouble she's in."

Shelby sighed. "Great. That woman chooses _now _to potentially help Will Schuester's glee club out. We can't go on without one of our main singers."

"I know all the lyrics," Sugar piped up quickly, upset that Santana had apparently gotten into trouble but eager for an opportunity to finally prove herself. "I can do it."

"Oh God, then we'll definitely lose," Mercedes complained from beside her. "It's better to just forfeit before we embarrass ourselves."

"We're not forfeiting," Shelby insisted. "Brittany, don't change into your dress yet; do you mind going to Sue's office and waiting there to see if-?" She stopped speaking, then, because Santana had suddenly shuffled into the doorway, her head bowed and her body trembling noticeably. The other Cheerios who were chatting in the corner immediately fell silent, leaving the room completely void of noise. Everyone who hadn't already been facing the doorway certainly was now, and Shelby gingerly stepped forward, clearly noticing something was off. "Santana?" she started gently, stopped beside her and putting a hand on her still-shaking shoulder. "What happened?"

Santana raised her head, then, and Sugar had to swallow hard to avoid gasping. Santana's eyes were red, and her cheeks were puffy from crying and were covered in tear-streaks. Even as they watched her, she blinked and another tear fell from her eye to slide down her cheek. Her mouth opened and closed for a moment, until a hardly audible, "Britt," barely slipped past her lips.

The whole club remembered Brittany at the same time, then, and everyone's eyes went to the girl in question to see her staring back at Santana with a strange mix of shock, concern, and horrified understanding. She crossed the room instantaneously and Santana broke away from Shelby to throw her arms around Brittany and sob into her shoulder as the other girls looked on in utter confusion.

"E-everyone…" Santana choked out into Brittany's shoulder. "There's a tape; the whole state will-" She cut herself off to sob again, and Brittany squeezed her tighter in an act of comfort, but the expression on Brittany's face completely contradicted her actions. She was totally lost. She genuinely had no clue what to do. Her eyes darted around the room and eventually met Sugar's, and Sugar had no advice for her. Even Shelby looked lost. None of them had ever seen Santana this way before, and none of them knew for sure what had caused it.

"Everyone's gonna know about us now," Santana whispered at that moment, her hands clenching tight around the parts of Brittany's uniform they'd been touching as she buried her face further into Brittany's shoulder. Realization dawned on everyone at the same time, and Sugar heard Mercedes gasp beside her. The other girls exchanged stunned looks and Shelby looked to be fighting back her own tears. Sugar felt like her whole body had gone numb. All of this was her fault. She'd gone back in time and changed things; she'd made it happen. All she'd wanted to do was to make her parents open and proud about whom they really were. She'd wanted them to do it of their own volition.

She'd never wanted it to happen like this.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Sorry for the wait, this was the first time I had yet to start the next chapter when I posted the last one so it took a while to write. ****I haven't seen any episodes of Glee past IKAG, and since I'm not following canon for that ep I should be winging it from here on out with the exception of some borrowed plot points.** **I also apologize in advance for writing such an unrealistic chapter aka making Will a decent human being here. ****:P**_  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>Ooh<br>Ooh_

In the end, Santana had recovered just barely enough to do the mash-up. The rest of the Troubletones had left her alone to talk with just Brittany and Shelby and headed to the auditorium.

_She  
>She ain't real<br>She's ain't gon' be able to love you like I will_

A few minutes later, Shelby had shown up with Brittany and Santana by her side, _both_ of them showing signs of having been crying then. Sugar didn't ask questions. None of them did.

_Sure  
>She's got it all<br>But baby is that really what you want?_

The music stopped and they all fell silent now. Sugar bit her lip. The real choreography was about to start, the part that took focus and concentration. Mercedes looked to Santana, who let out a shaky breath, but her body remained steady.

The song continued, Sugar using every ounce of concentration she'd mustered to get through the moves without issue. The rest of the girls had been trained for a long time, unlike her, but in that moment, she knew that with the exception of her moms, she had her heart in it the most. And if they could stay poised throughout this, then so could she. They were going to kill this number if it was the last thing they did.

_Don't forget me, I beg  
>I remember you said<em>

It was time for Santana's solo and the choreography called for a mix-up that left Sugar and Brittany briefly making eye-contact. Brittany had just enough time to send her a weak smile before they were mixed about with the other dancers again, and Sugar's mind went back to the steps. Santana was turning around now and Sugar saw her watching Brittany as she sang. The guilt built up even more heavily in her chest.

_I heard that your dreams came true  
>Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you<em>

_Oh, rumor has it_

It was apparent that they were better than New Directions had been by the time they reached the last chorus, and Sugar caught a brief glimpse of Finn leaning over and whispering something to Rachel. In front of her, Santana tensed noticeably.

The music slowed and Mercedes stepped in front of them for the first of the last two lines. A moment later, Santana joined her while everyone else looked on in silence. Brittany was in front of Sugar now and she saw that she was shaking slightly. The dancing was over. Brittany was back to vulnerable again, and as soon as Santana's part was done, _she _would be too. Sugar could already tell this wasn't going to be good, and the way Finn was smirking now as he spoke to Rachel again only made her hunch even more certain.

_Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead_

The song ended and without warning Santana was immediately off of the stage and in Finn's face the same way she'd been in Sugar's just days earlier. Only this was much, much worse. Sugar hadn't done anything; not on purpose, anyway. Finn had done _everything_, and they all knew it.

"Did you tell her, too?"

"Santana-" Will interrupted, but he was ignored. Sugar watched Brittany step forward towards the front of the stage, and Sugar followed her there and stood beside Mercedes, who was looking on with what looked to be a hint of shame. Sugar wondered briefly if Mercedes was thinking back to what she'd said at their slumber party.

"Everyone's gonna know now. Because of _you_."

"The whole school already knows," Finn retorted. Sugar's jaw clenched. He deserved a slap in the face. "And you know what, they don't care-"

"Not just the school, you idiot. Everyone!"

"What are you talking abou-?"

Santana reared back and slapped him so hard it echoed around the whole auditorium, which immediately went eerily silent. Sugar's jaw dropped. Beside her, Mercedes' jaw dropped. Will and Artie both looked on in stunned concern. And in the very middle of it all, Santana breathed in and out heavily, even looking shocked at herself.

* * *

><p>Sugar caught up to Brittany at her locker the next day, taking care to approach slowly and to be gentle when she tapped her on the arm to get her attention. Brittany glanced over at her briefly with tired eyes and gave a very obviously forced smile.<p>

"Hi," Sugar almost whispered. "Have you heard-?"

Brittany answered her with a shake of her head before she could finish. "She won't return my calls. So I'm gonna go visit her after practice."

"She's ignoring you?" Sugar questioned, watching as Brittany closed her locker and then hurrying to keep up with her when she turned to walk down the hallway. "Why?"

Brittany sighed. "Because that's what Santana does when she's hurting. She pushes everyone away. But I'm not going anywhere."

Sugar couldn't help but smile at that. "Hey, can I come, too?" She still felt guilty about what had happened, and she wanted to prove that she would be there for both Santana and Brittany for as long as she could be. "I want to help, and I know she could use a friend."

Brittany thought about that for a moment. "I don't know… I mean, she won't be too upset about _me_ pretty much breaking into her house, but I think she might kill _you_."

"I'll risk it," Sugar insisted. "Parking lot after practice?"

Brittany bit her lip. "Well…I guess you can come. But if she gets mad it's your fault."

"I can handle it," Sugar promised.

* * *

><p>The Troubletones never ended up practicing that day. Instead, Shelby simply led the remaining six girls to the choir room where New Directions was supposed to be practicing. Will and the other club, with the exception of Finn, were already there, waiting solemnly, and Shelby simply gestured for the Troubletones to sit down wherever they wanted. The exception to this was Brittany, who Shelby took care to give a seat in the front and then sat down next to her with a gentle pat to her shoulder. Sugar noticed a projector in the middle of the room, pointed towards the white board. Will was standing in front of the group now and addressed them all once everyone was seated.<p>

"There are a lot of rumors going around McKinley right now about what happened with Finn and Santana," Will told them. "And I know a few of you are very sensitive about this topic right now, but I think it needs to be addressed. If anyone's going to know the truth, it should be you guys. You're the closest friends they both have, and when Santana comes back here, she's going to need you guys' support, because frankly, I don't know who else is going to be there for her."

Brittany's eyes had already lowered and were beginning to water, and Shelby immediately put a hand on her back, rubbing it to try and comfort her. Sugar felt her own eyes beginning to tear up but had to hold it back; it'd be suspicious for her to cry.

"Santana and Finn are both suspended for three days. While it's clear that Santana has been punished for slapping Finn, the administration-"

"In other words, Principal Figgins, bullied into it by Sue," Shelby cut in, sounding disgusted. "Because technically there were only school rules placed against what _Santana _did."

"Right," Will agreed sadly. "Finn is suspended for spreading harmful rumors about another student. I'm sure you guys have been able to tell that there's been some animosity between Finn and Santana these past few days. From what I understand, Finn got tired of Santana taking jabs at him and decided he'd counter with an attack on her sexuality and her relationship with Brittany." The whole room was deathly quiet, and most, if not all of the seated students glanced toward Brittany at that moment. She kept her eyes down. "He did this in the middle of a crowded hallway."

Will let that simmer for a moment. Rachel's jaw was clenched and Kurt and Blaine exchanged looks of heavy disappointment. "Santana was wrong to pick on Finn the way she did, and I think we all know that. But it is _never _okay to do what Finn did, especially with no extra knowledge about what else is going on in a person's life. Brittany," he addressed her gently, "do Santana's parents-?"

"No," Brittany answered quietly before he could finish. "No one does. Did," she corrected with a wince.

Will nodded. "Exactly. I want this to be a lesson to the rest of you, at the very least. I know Kurt, Blaine, and Brittany can understand, but for the rest of us, we can't even begin to know what it's like to have a secret like that revealed to everyone." He took a tape from where it rested on top of the piano and walked towards the projector, bending down to the VCR sitting just below it. "This might be hard for some of you to watch, but I want you to see firsthand the ramifications of Finn's actions. Sue's congressional campaign has gotten slanderous, and one of her opponents has a niece who overheard what Finn shouted to Santana in the hallway. She told her uncle and he made this tape to get back at Sue. We're doing everything we can to prevent it from being aired to all of Ohio, but as of right now, we're not having any luck." He nodded at Shelby and she went to turn the lights off.

"Santana wasn't innocent in this situation. But it's never okay to out someone," Will finished, and pressed "play" on the VCR. Sugar was afraid to look, and she couldn't imagine how Brittany felt.

_Sue Sylvester wants to represent Ohio. She says she shares your values. If that's true, boy do we have some questions. If you're so into family values, why did you promote a lesbian student to be your head cheerleader?_

Sugar heard a gasp from behind her as a picture of Santana flashed across the screen, and she turned to see Rachel staring wide-eyed with a hand over her gaping mouth.

_And when did you plan on telling Ohio families? Here's another question: Why don't you have a husband, Sue? Is there something you're not telling us? Sue Sylvester: so many questions. _

The video ended and Will went to remove the tape while the students sat together in stunned silence.

"That's disgusting," Kurt finally whispered. "Does my dad know about this?"

"He was there when we showed Santana the tape," Will replied, "and is punishing Finn accordingly at home, I assume."

"I'm going home now," Brittany cut in quietly from the other side of the room as she stood up and began to gather her things. "Bye."

"Britt-" Tina started as they all watched her go, and Sugar stood up hastily and grabbed her own things before hurrying after Brittany.

She caught up to her in the hallway and they walked together in silence until Sugar finally had the courage to speak up. "Are you still going to Santana's house?"

"No," Brittany replied stiffly. "I have to go find the Chamber of Secrets."

Sugar took a second to figure that one out. "Wait… like from 'Harry Potter'?"

"Yep. That's where Salazar lives."

"Mo…uh, Brittany, I think that's a different Salazar. That's Salazar Slytherin, and the guy who made that video is Reggie Salazar. And you can't do anything to him or you could get into trouble."

Brittany paused. "Well, I can't just do nothing."

"You can be there for your girlfriend," Sugar reminded her. "And if you let me, I can help."

* * *

><p>"Hi Mrs. Lopez."<p>

"Grandma," Sugar whispered under her breath in awe as Santana's mother forced a smile at Brittany.

"Hi there, Brittany. Santana's up in her room; she's grounded so I don't want you two going anywhere but you're welcome to pay her a visit. Who's this?" Her gaze fell to Sugar who could barely contain her excitement. Her grandparents had been away on business during her last sleepover with Brittany and Santana, and she was finally getting to see what they'd looked like in their prime.

"This is our friend Sugar. She wanted to come say hi, too," Brittany replied.

"Alright; that's fine. Just don't be long; Santana's still being punished, after all."

Brittany nodded and led Sugar inside. Sugar caught a glimpse of her grandfather in another room, talking rapidly on a cell phone, but then they reached the stairs and Brittany gestured for her to climb them.

They stopped outside Santana's bedroom and Brittany took a small breath before gently pushing the door open and peering inside. Santana was sitting up in her bed, watching television with red-rimmed eyes and an emotionless gaze. That gaze slowly went to Brittany and she frowned. "What are you doing here?"

"You're ignoring me," Brittany replied simply as she entered the room, Sugar hot on her heels.

"No; my mom took my ph-" Santana paused, her eyes narrowing when she saw they had company. "Okay, why is _she _here, too?"

"Because she's our friend and she cares about you," Brittany told her while Sugar frowned and toed the carpet. Brittany took a seat on the bed while Santana glared at Sugar, until she finally scooted forward and regained Santana's attention by raising a hand to tuck some of her hair behind her ear, and then cupping her cheek. "Are you okay?"

"Stop," Santana mumbled, pushing her hand away with a glance towards Sugar, whose eyes were now focused on Santana's nightstand while Brittany looked hurt. Her cell phone was resting there, turned off. Brittany sighed and Santana's eyes squeezed shut. "Look…I just need time to think. I have a lot to deal with right now. That commercial's airing soon and I have to come out to my parents and my abuela before it does, and it's just…it's so much. I can't deal with you right now too, Britt."

"I didn't know I was such a burden," Brittany mumbled, moving away. "Sorry."

"You know that's not what I meant." Santana glanced at Sugar again. "Do we have to have this conversation with _her _in the room?"

"I can go," Sugar offered, but Brittany shook her head.

"Sugar's not going anywhere, Santana. And neither am I. So stop trying, okay? We're gonna help you. We can help you come out to your mom and dad. I've already done mine so I know how."

Santana forced a smile. "Britt, didn't they find your dad's old magazines under your bed?"

Sugar pulled a disgusted face and Brittany grinned. "Totally. Wanna do it that way?"

Santana smiled again, but it looked real this time. "Not really. I want to tell them about us, too. I'm just… afraid they won't accept it. They're not like your parents."

Sugar jumped in there, her knowledge of the future kicking in. "You know," she started slowly, gaining both girls' attention, "I actually had a friend, uh…at my old school, and she was gay too and thought her parents wouldn't accept it, but they actually were cool with it. So maybe yours will be, too."

"Your friends' parents weren't _my _parents," Santana replied with a roll of her eyes. "They'll probably hate me."

"No they won't," Brittany insisted. "No one can hate you. And if they don't like it, you can stay with me. Either way you'll still have people that love you when all of this is over. And you'll still have me." Taking care to remember Sugar was still in the room, she leaned forward and kissed Santana gently on the cheek, then shot her a small smile, which, after a little hesitation, was returned. "It'll be okay."


	10. Chapter 10

Finn and Santana returned to McKinley three days later and from what Sugar heard, Finn apparently had been getting the silent treatment from Kurt ever since Salazar's video was shown in the choir room. Rachel too seemed to be a little short with him, but it was evident he regretted his actions, especially when the Troubletones were called into the choir room a day after Santana's return and told to take a seat, much like they had been for the video.

Finn was the one standing in front of the group now, and Santana glared daggers at him as she took a seat in the front, Brittany and Sugar on either side of her. "I screwed up," he started blatantly. "I mean, we both screwed up but I screwed up worse than you and I'm sorry. I really am. Kurt and Burt talked to me at home… well, mostly Burt did, but they made me realize that it wasn't okay to do what I did." He took a deep breath. "So…I thought maybe to make it up to you we could have a Glee assignment to show our support. Just so you know that we're there for you." He gestured to the board behind him, where "Lady Music Week" had been written.

Santana scoffed. "Please. If you think that some stupid song from you is going to make me forgive you for what you did, you've got another slap to the face coming, Blubber-Belly. You stay away from me." She lifted her nose in the air. "The rest of you can feel free to shower me with gifts as long as Finn isn't involved. I'm going to need cheering up this week anyway."

Will sighed. "Santana, please don't call Finn names. Finn, if Santana doesn't want you to sing a song to her, we should honor that request."

Finn frowned. "Alright. I guess I understand. I just figured it'd be something nice to do after I-"

"-Outed me to the entire school and potentially ruined my life?" Santana finished. "Yeah. Thanks for the thought. Would've been nice if you had been this considerate about a week ago. Can we go now? The Troubletones need to prepare to crush you guys at Sectionals…not that we need the practice to do that, but frankly I'd just rather anyone who isn't Brittany stay away from me right now." She stood up and left the room without waiting for a response, and Brittany watched her go with disappointment.

Will spoke up in the silence that followed her departure. "Brittany, clearly you're the only person Santana's willing to open up around. I know everyone from New Directions is eager to show their support in the best way they know how, and I'm sure the Troubletones are as well. Maybe you should come up with a song to sing and go first, to get her to warm up to the idea?"

Brittany nodded thoughtfully, mulling it over, and then smiled after a moment. "Okay. I can do that."

* * *

><p>¡¿Sabes qué? ¡Yo soy de Lima Heights Adjacent! ¡¿Conoces quién es mi padre? ¡Tengo hojas de afeitar en mi-hey! ¡Vuelve aquí y lucharme te patético poco-!"<p>

Sugar let out a loud "oof" as Santana accidentally elbowed her in the stomach, nearly losing her grip on the girl as she lashed out again at the jock currently fleeing away from them down the hallway.

"¡Sí, es cierto, es mejor que correr!"

"Santana," Sugar wheezed out as her ribs throbbed painfully and her arms were strained even further around Santana's midsection. "Let him go. He's stupid."

"_You _let _me _go," Santana insisted, trying to pry Sugar's arms away. "All it takes is one example-"

"You're _not _gonna make an example out of him," Sugar insisted. "I know guys like him are asses but we're supposed to go meet New Directions and the Troubletones in the choir room, remember? It's important."

"Oh, like repaying a visit to the idiot who caused all this is supposed to be my motivation for _not _kicking ass?" Santana retorted incredulously, finally extricating herself from Sugar's grip and spinning around to face her, arms crossed. "I don't see why _you _had to be the one to come drag me there anyway. Where's Brittany?"

"She's busy. And waiting for you. It's a surprise."

"I've had enough surprises to last a lifetime, thanks," Santana sneered. "So unless she's found a way to stop that tape from airing in three days, I think I'll just be going n-"

"Nope," Sugar cut in, hurrying after Santana and grabbing her shoulders to steer her in a different direction.

"Stop touching me," Santana snapped even as she let Sugar push her down a new hallway. "Seriously. Your mani's terrible and I don't want it anywhere near me, and I don't want to spend any more time with the Peanut Gallery than I already have in the past two years. Just go tell Ms. Corcoran to get the Troubletones and meet me in the-"

"No way," Sugar cut her off. "They sent me to come find you and bring you back and I'm not going to let them down."

"What idiot decided to send _you_?"

"Well… I volunteered," Sugar corrected. "But that's not the point. Brittany wants you to go, so I know you'll go."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Santana retorted indignantly. "I'm _not_-"

"Aaaaand here we are," Sugar interrupted, stopping Santana as they reached the doorway to the choir room. Brittany lit up when she saw them and immediately hurried over to pull Santana inside the room, but not before the darker girl managed a quick glare at Sugar, who simply followed them inside with a smile.

"Okay, I showed up for Happy Hour. Can I go now? I've got this giant whale-sized blind spot directly in my line of vision and I probably need to get it checked out," Santana told them as she completely ignored an apologetic-looking Finn who had stepped forward to say something to her. Grudgingly he moved back to his seat and Santana faked cheerfulness. "Oh, look; all better. Anyway, I'll see the rest of you at Sectionals in a couple weeks. Bye."

Sugar blocked the doorway hastily as Santana tried to leave , and even Will and Shelby looked mildly amused by the look on Santana's face.

"Out of the way, Floo Powder."

Sugar shook her head simply and shot a look Brittany's way, who immediately came over to take Santana's hand again and gently tugged her to the front row of seats on the other side of the room.

"Come on, Santana," she prodded. "Just sit down for a sec."

"Tell me what's going on, first," Santana insisted, pulling away. "Seriously, you can't just get the lapdog to bring me here and then spring the Blind Spot and the lameness that is our old Glee club on me-"

"Santana," Will warned.

"Seriously, you guys suck," Santana told him matter-of-factly, before returning her attention to Brittany. "What's going on?"

Brittany bit her lip, then looked over Santana's shoulder at Shelby, who gave her an encouraging nod. "I know you don't like Finn's idea-"

"Who?" Santana questioned with feigned cluelessness. Brittany smiled at her knowingly.

"-but we all love you and we want to show you." She looked down, then, toeing the ground shyly with the tip of her Cheerios sneaker. "And I love you the most of course… soooo I wanted to go first."

"Brittany and I spent all afternoon practicing yesterday with the New Directions band," Shelby input from behind Santana. "They've all been working very hard."

Santana let out a heavy sigh, taking a long time to think it over, then finally shrugged, resigned, and turned to glare at the rest of the people in the room. "Pick the one person I can't say no to. Nice."

Brittany clapped happily, grinning, and Sugar bit her lip to hide a smile as she scrambled into a front-row seat. Santana gingerly sat down beside her while Brittany set up a stool at the front of the room. "This song is by the most legendary singer of our time besides Ke$ha," Brittany introduced once she'd taken her seat, and then the band began to play.

_Elevator buttons and morning air  
>Strangers' silence makes me wanna take the stairs<br>If you were here we'd laugh about their vacant stares  
>But right now my time is theirs<em>

Sugar had never heard the song before, but judging by Santana's eye-roll and tiny smile, she figured it was probably a song Brittany loved by an artist Santana hated. It figured even as teenagers their musical choices would be polar opposites. The car radio was more fought over than the remote control in the Pierce-Lopez household.

_Seems like there's always someone who disapproves  
>They'll judge it like they know about me and you<br>And the verdict comes from those with nothing else to do  
>The jury's out, my choice is you<em>

She was beginning to get the relevance of the song choice now, and Santana seemed to be, too, because her eyes were locked with Brittany's now and the patronized expression was gone. Sugar heard a sniff from somewhere behind her and nearly turned around, but she didn't want to miss a moment of the song. There was about a ninety-percent chance it was Rachel anyway. Or maybe Kurt.

_So don't you worry your pretty little mind  
>People throw rocks at things that shine<br>And life makes love look hard  
>The stakes are high<br>The water's rough  
>But this love is ours<em>

There was a break for music and Brittany slipped off of her stool and resolutely dragged it over to directly in front of Santana, planting it there and then taking her seat again. She gestured for Santana to stand up and received an embarrassed head-shake in response.

"C'mon," Brittany tried again, grinning and reaching down to grab Santana's hand. "It's just our friends." She pulled Santana to her feet while she remained seated on the stool, leaving them at an almost even height, and then joined both of their hands as the song continued, singing with their faces less than a foot apart.

_And it's not theirs to speculate if it's wrong and  
>Your hands are tough but they are where mine belong and<br>I'll fight their doubt and give you faith with this song for you_

She squeezed Santana's hands with another playful grin and received a shy smile as Santana looked back down at their hands and chewed on her lip.

_Cause I love the gap between your teeth  
>And I love the riddles that you speak<br>And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos will be ignored  
>Cause my heart is yours<em>

Brittany let out a little giggle and Sugar saw Santana's eyes getting watery. She chanced a glance around them and saw everyone else beaming as they looked on, with the exception of Rachel, who was swatting Finn's comforting arm away from her while digging through her purse for a Kleenex, and Rory, who looked a little jealous. Sugar made a mental note to handle that later.

_So don't you worry your pretty little mind  
>People throw rocks at things that shine<br>And life makes love look hard  
>Don't you worry your pretty little mind<br>People throw rocks at things that shine  
>But they can't take what's ours<br>They can't take what's ours_

Eyebrows furrowed in concentration, Brittany carefully rearranged their hands so that their fingers were laced together, and when she was done, raised her head again and finished the song gently, almost like it was an afterthought, or a sigh.

_The stakes are high  
>The water's rough<br>But this love is ours_

The entire club gave a rousing applause as Brittany hopped off of the stool to stand directly in front of Santana, their hands still joined as a proud but slightly nervous grin spread across her lips. Eventually the applause stopped as everyone eagerly awaited a reaction, and Santana let out a tiny sniff, finally raising her eyes to meet Brittany's. Brittany's grin faded slightly when she noticed Santana looked to be on the verge of tears. "Uh. The end?" she finally offered, smiling again, hopefully. Santana watched her carefully with misty eyes as Brittany continued, "So if it totally sucked this was Mr. Schue's idea. I mean Rachel's. I mean not mine. Finn's. Um."

Santana cut her off with a quick chuckle and a mumbled "Stop", before standing on her toes and leaning in to kiss Brittany fully on the lips. Sugar's jaw dropped and Puck wolf-whistled in the back row until Mercedes elbowed him in the gut. Will and Shelby watched on with raised eyebrows as Brittany wrapped her arms around Santana's midsection and Santana reached up to rest her arms on Brittany's shoulders and hooked her hands somewhere behind her neck. They pulled each other closer.

"Okay, that's enough," Will interrupted nervously, rushing forward to pull them apart.

Sugar looked on in amusement as Will awkwardly broke up the kiss, then scanned the happy faces of her classmates with pride.

"Mission accomplished."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: This chapter's the longest one yet but a lot of it's song lyrics, however I did try to make it about more than just songs. For those of you who asked, the song Brittany sang was "Ours" by Taylor Swift. I'll post the songs from this chapter at the end for whoever's curious. **_  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>Find yourself cause I can't find you<br>Be yourself, who are you?  
>Find yourself, cause I can't find you<br>Be yourself, who are you?_

Santana looked mildly perturbed to have Rachel singing to her, but Sugar happily rocked back and forth to the song two seats over, continuing to enjoy the plethora of buried songs from the past she was now getting to hear. Puck had already sung Melissa Etheridge's "I'm the Only One" just a few minutes ago, and before him had been Kurt and Blaine singing Pink's "Perfect". Santana had sat through both, thanks to Brittany, and even tried to look thankful when they were done. The last performer of the day was, of course, Rachel.

_Who knows what could happen  
>Do what you do just keep on laughing<br>One thing's true, there's always a brand new day  
>I'm gonna live today like it's my last day<em>

The song ended and Rachel beamed at Santana, who forced a smile in response and started to stand up to leave now that the performances were over. Brittany bumped her shoulder purposefully and she winced, before forcing out, "Um… thanks, Rachel."

Rachel simply grinned wider at her and stepped forward, declaring, "Oh my gosh, we're so gonna hug, aren't we? I can feel it."

"What?" Santana countered quickly, looking alarmed. She had no more time to react as Rachel stepped forward and threw her arms around her, clinging to her with a smile on her face. The rest of the students held back chuckles as Santana, despite looking disgusted, awkwardly and hesitantly returned the hug, patting Rachel on the back gently until she finally let go.

"I'm so glad we're gonna be friends now."

"Mhmm," Santana replied, shooting Brittany a pleading look. Luckily, her girlfriend came to her rescue.

"Santana and I are coming out to her parents today," Brittany announced, distracting everyone from Rachel and Santana. "We're gonna do it together."

"Good luck, you guys," Tina replied for the group as everyone else nodded their agreement.

"I'd suggest having stuff written down beforehand," Blaine offered helpfully. "That way if things get heated and all over the place, you can always go back to what you've written and it'll help collect your thoughts so you can get your point across clearly and concisely. When my dad wasn't okay with me and it turned into a shouting match and he threatened to kick me out, that really helped me out."

Brittany and Santana blinked at him, looking mildly horrified. "Thanks, Blaine," Santana finally deadpanned. "Whatever motivation I had to do this that wasn't already killed by Berry's mildly homoerotic song choice said goodbye just now instead."

Blaine opened his mouth to respond but Kurt quickly cut in, clapping a hand over his mouth with a forced grin. "He's kidding! He's just kidding. I'm sure your parents will be fine, Santana."

The group finally said their goodbyes and they all went their separate ways, with Sugar heading out to the parking lot to wait for Al to pick her up. She could walk just fine but he'd insisted on driving there instead, having texted her during the day to tell her that they needed to talk. Sugar wasn't sure how she was supposed to take that.

Rory was there too, waiting on Brittany's parents, as Sugar had discovered was his usual routine. Brittany _did _have somewhat of a mean streak of her own, and it showed in that she always rode home with Santana, leaving Rory to find his own way home. Today it was definitely excusable, though.

"Hey!" She walked right up to him and he turned to look at her, confused. They'd never spoken a word to each other before. "Rory, right?"

"Yeah," he replied, accent thick and hard to understand even with just that one word. "I wasn't sure you knew that."

"Of course I knew that, silly," Sugar insisted. "And I'm sure you know my name, so it's perfect."

"…What's perfect?"

"Well, we're perfect for each other," Sugar replied, looping her arm with his and smiling proudly. "We're gonna be best best friends from now on, alright?"

Rory raised both eyebrows at her, and then looked down suggestively at their joined arms before grinning back at her. "Okay, Sugar."

* * *

><p>Al arrived a few minutes later and beckoned towards Sugar, who hastily said goodbye to a newly-enamored Rory who blushingly waved back in response as she went.<p>

"Who's that?" Al questioned as Sugar pulled the car door shut and tossed her bag into the backseat.

"Just some kid named Rory," Sugar told him. "He had a crush on my friend so I decided to distract him from her."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Al's tone was getting testy again and Sugar knew a lecture was coming up. "What if he originally married that girl in the future, Sugar? You have to think about these things before you interfere. In fact, I wanted to drive you home precisely so we could have some time to speak about this. Want to tell me more about these friends you're with constantly?"

"Relax," Sugar insisted, feeling her pulse quicken at the prospect of Al ever discovering what exactly she was spending her time doing. "Anything I'm changing, I'm changing for the better."

There was a long silence as they turned a corner. Finally, Al took a deep breath. "But how can you be sure, Sugar?" Something in his voice caught her attention and she looked to him nervously. "Sugar Lopez-Pierce, wasn't it?" he continued icily. Sugar swallowed hard, not liking his tone. "I had a meeting today with Will Schuester and Shelby Corcoran regarding the upcoming Sectionals competition. I've agreed to pay for the uniforms of both the Troubletones and New Directions to show my support. Naturally, I needed the names and estimated measurements of the members of both teams."

Sugar's heart dropped into her stomach. "I can explain."

"I bet you can. Because I'm sure there is a very _not _coincidental reason why there are two girls on the Troubletones with those same two last names. You're from… what was it; 2031? Which would put those girls at around… twenty-three years old when you were born? Sounds accurate enough to me."

Sugar bit her lip, speechless now as she stared down at her lap.

"I don't know if you planned this when you came here, and I don't know what you've changed, but I hope you realize you may have prevented your own birth by doing what you've done," he said, breaking the tense silence. "There's nothing we can do to fix it, and honestly I don't think keeping you away from them now would serve any purpose. You'll just have to face the consequences, whatever they may be."

They pulled into the driveway and Al parked the car while Sugar looked up at him nervously. "Wait," she called out hastily when she saw he was getting out of the car. "I mean… if I changed something, if I really did mess things up… I can't fix it?"

Al looked down at her with something akin to disappointed sympathy. "Sugar, you can't time-travel if you don't exist."

He slammed the door shut and walked to the front door of his house, and Sugar remained in his car, stunned.

* * *

><p>"Brittany!" Sugar called out the next morning the second she found her mother alone by her locker. Even though she'd been caught by Al, their conversation had only made her more determined to make sure things went well with Brittany and Santana. Now more than ever she needed to keep them from breaking up.<p>

Brittany raised an eyebrow at hearing her name, looking around wildly, but her expression changed to one of relaxed friendliness when she saw Sugar headed her way.

"Where's Santana?" Sugar questioned, looking around them. "Is she okay? Her parents were fine, right? She's okay? Hmm?"

Brittany grinned at her, holding back a laugh. She nodded proudly. "Yeah, everything went super well. They already knew."

Sugar looked taken aback. She'd never heard _that _part of the story before. "Really?"

"Yeah. I think most parents do; at least the accepting ones, anyway. Mine had an idea."

"But what happened? I mean, so they weren't surprised?"

"They were more surprised about how long _she'd _known," Brittany said with a shrug. "They thought she was still in denial because she only just got out of this fake relationship with this guy named Karofsky near the end of last year. They were just shocked she was already totally sure about it and that she'd been dating me for months." Brittany looked proud of herself all of a sudden. "They totally approve of us and think we're cute together. Plus it helps that they've known me for forever, so."

"That's good," Sugar told her anxiously. "Just make sure you guys never break up, okay?"

Brittany raised an eyebrow at her. "Kay? Of course we won't."

"Well, I'm just double-checking," Sugar retorted. "I put a lot of effort into helping you two come out as a couple so I don't want it to be for nothing."

Brittany rolled her eyes but smiled as she did so, and as Sugar tried to reassure herself that everything would work out, Brittany's gaze slid past her and her smile widened. "Hey Santana!" she called out, causing Sugar to turn around to see where Brittany was looking. Santana paused where she was in mid-conversation with Mercedes on the other end of the crowded hallway, glancing around to find the source of the shout. When her eyes found Brittany, she smiled shyly and raised her hand to curl her fingers in a cute little wave. "You're a hot First Lady!" Brittany continued once she had Santana's attention, and Sugar looked between them with surprise as Santana grinned through a blush and several random cheers and claps of agreement sounded from throughout the hallway. A second later Santana was tugging Mercedes away after offering Brittany another quick wave, clearly still blushing, and Brittany was turning to shut her locker, beaming.

"So that was random," Sugar pointed out, confused.

"Yep. But I can do it now and she lets me," Brittany replied, gathering her things and then practically skipping off to her next class while humming "Hail to the Chief". Sugar sighed to try and kill her anxiety as she stared at Brittany's back, then turned to find her next period as well.

* * *

><p>"Really, guys. My parents are cool with it and I can bitch out anyone here who isn't. I really don't need this anymore." Mike, Tina, Artie, Rory, Finn, Mercedes, and Rachel all deflated in front of her while Will and Shelby looked on in disappointment from the doorway to the choir room. Santana straightened up in her seat. "Besides, I already said I don't want Finn singing to me."<p>

"I have like _one _line," Finn mumbled while Santana continued over him.

"And Berry, didn't you already go? I mean, I've bleached the memory from my brain already but I seem to recall Brittany mentioning something about it this morning, so…"

"There's just this and then one more, Santana," Mercedes told her matter-of-factly. "Just try and at least _act_ appreciative, please? What if things hadn't gone so well with your parents? We wanted to be prepared."

"And thank God you were," Santana agreed over-emphatically. "I don't know what I would've done if I'd been kicked out of my house and you guys hadn't had a song prepared to sing to me to make it better."

"Okay, I get it," Finn retorted. "It was a dumb idea and you probably hate every song so far other than Brittany's, but can you please let us do this? Can you please show some sensitivity towards someone other than Brittany? Because that was a really nice side of you that we all got to see that day, and_ that _Santana is really special and actually _human_. This wall you're constantly putting up is ridiculous, and this isn't all about you coming out. This is about you showing your friends the side of you that you hide to look tough. Yeah, you're coming out as gay, but it's also kind of like by doing that you're showing some of the real you. And we want to see more of it."

"How touching," Santana deadpanned. "Sorry Finnept, Brittany's a special case. I'll let you know when I fall in love with you and then you can see me when I'm not a complete bitch."

Finn threw his hands in the air and stepped back behind the group in the front of the room, shaking his head. "I give up."

"I'm glad we've reached an understanding."

"Santana," Brittany began knowingly, reaching over to take her hand. "They're just trying to be nice. Do you want Quinn to sing her song first, kind of like how I went first so you'd listen to everyone else?"

Santana let out an annoyed sigh, glaring across the room to where Quinn was watching her with a curious eyebrow raised. "You're singing something?"

"I've been kicked out before," Quinn replied simply. "So I know how it feels. And you and Brittany were my best friends these past two years. I figured it was the least I could do."

Santana sat back in her chair at that, crossing her arms while her foot bounced anxiously in front of her. "Okay, I want Quinn to go now. But only because she has a killer taste in music."

Will and Shelby visibly let out sighs of relief on the other side of the room, and the group at the front shuffled back to their seats as Quinn hopped out of hers and made her way to the front. The three Cheerios from the Troubletones joined her, too, to everyone's surprise but Quinn's. "I needed backup dancers," Quinn explained, causing Santana to raise an eyebrow.

"Am I going to regret this?"

"Probably. But Brittany will love it," Quinn replied with a smirk. Beside Santana, Brittany perked up and immediately looked excited as the music started up.

"Britney!" she exclaimed in recognition, and Santana opened her mouth in confusion, probably to ask why Brittany had just shouted her own name, but a second later Quinn started singing and she let out a groan instead.

_You don't have to say what's on your mind  
>'Cause I know where you've been<br>Give it up and leave it all behind  
>And then let me begin<em>

_Come on over here_  
><em>Let me show how things should be<em>  
><em>I will make it alright<em>  
><em>Let me make it clear<em>  
><em>You can put your trust in me<em>  
><em>Yes I will be there<em>

_When you need someone  
>You just turn around<br>And I, will be there  
>When you're feeling low<br>Baby let me know  
>And I, will be there<em>

"Why do I know these people?" Santana mumbled, hand pressed to her forehead as everyone else clapped for Quinn. Santana finally looked up and Quinn blew her a playfully mocking kiss before retaking her seat along with the three Cheerios. "Gross, Fabray. I think I'd rather listen to Sugar screech for three minutes than sit through another one of those."

"That's too bad," Sugar told her, genuinely upset. "I figured you'd appreciate me _not _singing so I didn't prepare anything."

"You're my new favorite," Santana retorted, taking a deep breath a moment later to prepare herself as the other people who had yet to sing (and Rachel) took the floor. Sugar straightened up happily as Santana waved her hand at them dismissively. "Alright, get it over with. I'm coming out to mi abuela tonight so I promise I'll try to sap some kind of positive message out of this."

"We love you, Santana," Mercedes called out in response, blatantly ignoring Santana's complaining as Rachel gestured for the band to begin playing.

"Finn sang this for Kurt when he needed it," she explained, "back when Karofsky was bullying him for being gay. So we thought it was only fair to show you the same support that was shown to him." She stepped to the back of the group and let Artie take the front spot to begin the song.

_Oh, her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like they're not shining  
>Her hair, her hair, falls perfectly without her trying<br>She's so beautiful, and I tell her every day_

Mike took the next three lines while Santana looked amused at a wink she received from Artie, and the entire group sang the chorus that followed.

_Yeah, I know, I know, when I compliment her she won't believe me  
>And it's so, it's so, sad to think that she don't see what I see<br>But every time she asks me do I look ok, I say_

_When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change  
>Cause you're amazing, just the way you are<br>And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while  
>Because girl you're amazing, just the way you are<em>

The next two lines were Finn's, just before the last chorus, and Santana remained expressionless until his part was done with the exception of a tiny eye-roll, although she looked a little more annoyed and a little less angry than she had before.

_The way you are, the way you are  
>Girl you're amazing, just the way you are<em>

_When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change  
>Cause you're amazing, just the way you are<br>And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while  
>Cause girl you're amazing, just the way you are<em>

They finished to light applause from everyone, even including a slightly moved Santana who looked like at the very least they'd humbled her a bit. "Thanks, I guess," she said when it was clear everyone was waiting for her to speak. Brittany leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, smiling.

"Tonight will be harder than last night," she reminded Santana gently, squeezing her hand. "Are you sure you don't want me to be there?"

Santana sighed, shaking her head. "My parents were fine and I thought they'd be bad. So maybe the same thing will happen with Abuela…" She trailed off, then seemed to remember everyone was watching her and quickly shook her head as though she was vaguely disturbed, standing up abruptly. "Anyway, I have to go. She likes for me to be on time for dinner. Bye."

"Good luck," Rachel called out to her as she left, but she was gone so quickly that none of them were sure she'd even heard.

* * *

><p><strong>Rachel's song was "Who Knows?" by Avril Lavigne, Quinn's was "I Will Be There" by Britney Spears, and the group's was obviously Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are". <strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait; I haven't been writing as much lately. I think this story is almost near its end so hopefully I'll be able to get it done soon and have it published for you guys. I can't say enough how excited I am by all the people who are enjoying and keeping up with this story, so I hope you all like this chapter as well.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Having Rory drooling over her now was quickly becoming more of a nuisance than Sugar originally expected, as he tended to "accidentally" run into her several times throughout the day, was constantly offering to carry her stuff, and wanted to sit beside her at lunch. Sugar, of course, couldn't exactly tell him that she had a boyfriend from the future and therefore wasn't actually interested, and she felt a little bad leading him on. That is, until she realized he was basically the perfect source for all Brittany-and-Santana inside information. He lived with Brittany, after all.<p>

"Do you know if Santana's here today?" Sugar asked him at lunch, having been unable to locate the girl all throughout the morning. She and Rory were now at the usual Troubletones lunch table, but no one else had arrived yet.

"I dunno," Rory told her, shrugging. "Brittany seemed worried about her, though. And she normally rides to school with Santana, but she never showed up so she had to ride with me and her parents instead. They left directly afterward to go on a three-day vacation to Vegas so I _hope _Santana's here. She's Brittany and I's ride home."

The rest of the group began to arrive, and when Brittany sat down without Santana by her side, looking nervous, Sugar knew something was wrong.

"She's not texting me back," Brittany told them, biting her lip. "I think something's wrong. Should I call her house and see if her parents answer?"

"Why don't you give it some time?" Rory suggested before Sugar could reply, clearly trying to make Brittany feel better. "Maybe she stayed with her grandmother to sort things out."

"And missed school? And forgot to pick me up? And is ignoring me?" Brittany pressed, looking even more upset now. "I think something's really wrong."

"What do you think we should do?" Sugar asked her. "Do you want to go to her house and check on her again?"

Brittany shook her head. "I don't think she'll be there. She was supposed to spend the weekend at her abuela's house. They're not expecting her home… but they still don't know about the commercial, or about Santana wanting to come out to the rest of her family." She put her head in her hands, shaking it back and forth. "This is bad. This is so bad. If things went really awfully with her abuela she could be anywhere."

Sugar looked towards the cafeteria's exit, weighing her options. Finally, she asked, "Well, do you want to go look for her?"

Brittany looked up. "Right now? We don't even have a car."

"No," Sugar agreed. "But I know someone who does."

* * *

><p>Al was covered in grease and oil when he opened the front door to find Sugar, Rory, and Brittany standing on the other side and shivering in the cold.<p>

"Sugar?" he questioned, surprised, as Sugar pushed past him hastily and pulled Rory and Brittany in behind herself. Al closed the door behind them, looking confused as he joined them in the next room. "You're supposed to be at school."

"I know. But something's happened and we need your help… Dad," Sugar told him. "We didn't want the rest of our friends to worry and we needed someone with a car."

"What's going on?" Al asked slowly, looking to Brittany and Rory. "And who are 'we'?"

"This is Rory, from a couple days ago. He wanted to help so we let him tag along." Rory smiled and offered a shy wave in greeting. "And this is… um, this is Brittany," Sugar continued, trying not to wince as Al's eyes widened in recognition. "My other friend. Someone _very important _to her has gone missing and we need to find her." She shot him a look, hoping he would get the point, and after a moment, his mouth fell open and his eyes widened in realization.

"Oh! Oh no, that certainly _is _bad… let me go get my keys." He hurried away and Brittany looked to Sugar, impressed.

"Your Dad's really nice. I can't believe he's going to drive us around."

"Yeah, but having only one car's going to be a problem," Rory pointed out. "You don't think we should've asked some of New Directions to help too?"

"We can find her on our own," Brittany insisted. "Santana wouldn't want everyone out looking for her anyway."

"We'll just have to split up," Sugar surmised. "Brittany, you and my dad can drive around and look for her together, while Rory and I go on foot."

"Are you sure? It's cold out."

Sugar pulled a face but Rory looked confident. "We can handle it."

Al returned then, keys in hand and coat pulled on over his grease-stained clothes. "Alright, where to?"

"We should check her house and her abuela's house, just in case," Brittany told him.

"Are there any other places you think she might go?" Sugar asked her.

"Yeah, um… well, there's this bridge we like to go to so we can look out at the Lima River… or she might be at the park where we go to feed ducks… or at Breadstix… but the bridge and the park are in the opposite direction from Breadstix and the houses…"

"Well, how far are they?" Sugar asked. "Rory and I could go check those while you two search everywhere else.

"The park's just a couple miles but the bridge is kind of far… maybe five or so."

"We can hurry," Rory replied. "We'll split up when we have to and Sugar can check the park while I go for the bridge. It's no problem."

Brittany looked like she felt bad, but she was also anxious to leave, and so she simply nodded and told them, "I'll give you directions. We can text each other if we find her."

"When we find her," Sugar corrected as she took out her phone to put in Rory's number.

* * *

><p>"Here."<p>

Clearly Rory had noticed her shivering as they walked, because a second later Sugar felt another coat resting on her shoulders, and when she turned, Rory was clad in only a thin sweater as he rubbed at his arms.

"Thanks," she replied, surprised. He nodded and smiled, and then they both turned away and walked along in silence for a while. "You know," Sugar finally began, "you didn't have to do this. I don't think Santana even likes you."

Rory chuckled. "Yeah, but Brittany's my friend, and I get why Santana hates me. If I was in love and someone tried to steal my girlfriend away, I'd probably hate him, too. I'm just happy to help Brittany out."

"You still like her," Sugar accused knowingly, folding her arms across her chest.

Rory laughed again. "No, I don't. So…" He looked nervous now. "You don't have to be jealous, you know… if you are."

Sugar bit her lip, watching her feet, then finally met Rory's curious gaze. "I have a boyfriend, Rory," she sighed out. "He goes to another school. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Rory's smile died a little. "Oh. Alright. That's cool." They continued forward in awkward silence, until he joked, "So if you're not gonna date me, can I have my jacket back? It's freezing out here."

Sugar mock-glared at him and heaved the jacket at him harshly, laughing when it landed on his head and he stumbled. Her cell phone buzzed a moment later, distracting her, and she dug it out of her pocket and hastily opened it. "She's not at her parents' house," Sugar read aloud. "They said she never came home last night."

Rory pulled his jacket on and looked over her shoulder at the text to read it himself. "That's not good."

"Come on; let's hurry," Sugar insisted, grabbing his arm and tugging him along down the sidewalk.

* * *

><p>Sugar and Rory split up when the time came, and thankfully he was nice enough to let her borrow his jacket for real this time so that she wouldn't freeze when left alone. She headed down the road in what she hoped was the direction of the park, checking her phone for texts from Rory or Brittany along the way. Eventually she got one from Brittany that read: "Nobody answered at her abuela's house. It looks like nobody's home. We'll go check Breadstix."<p>

Sighing loudly and upping her pace, Sugar did her best to jog along the sidewalk, until finally a large lake came into view, followed by the park. Next to the lake were several benches, which Sugar scanned quickly for signs of life until her eyes settled on one across the lake, where a familiar figure was bundled up and hunched over, seemingly peering into the water. A relieved grin broke out across Sugar's face and she hastily sent two texts off to Rory and Brittany before beginning her trek around the lake.

Santana saw her coming from a long way away but thankfully didn't make an effort to get up and leave, and as Sugar grew closer, she gave the older girl a weak wave that wasn't returned. She sighed, then, realizing she had her work cut out for her if she wanted to fix this mess. She'd never really known her great-grandmother, as she'd died when Sugar was in Kindergarten, but it didn't take knowledge of the future for her to realize that things probably hadn't gone well. Her parents didn't mention Santana's abuela very often and she'd thought before that maybe it was because her death was too painful to talk about, but now she was beginning to realize it might've been for another reason entirely.

Her phone buzzed with relieved responses from Rory and Brittany, both of whom told her they were on their way, and Sugar pocketed her phone and then sat down next to Santana, letting out a deep breath. "Hey," she finally said after they'd sat in silence for a few seconds, Santana's eyes still on the lake. Santana didn't respond, and Sugar finally offered, "Brittany's on her way here with my dad. We've been looking for you. Rory too."

"Sorry," Santana murmured after a moment. "I needed to be alone."

"Did you sleep out here?"

That earned her a laugh at what apparently Santana thought was her stupidity. "No; I'm not an idiot. I slept in my car."

Sugar swallowed hard. "Some people just don't understand at first, I think, but eventually-"

"You didn't hear the things she said to me," Santana cut her off stiffly. "And you don't know her, so don't tell me she'll come around. You don't know that. No one does."

"I just…" Sugar trailed off, biting her lip, then looked down to her lap. "I don't know what to say," she whispered honestly, and they fell into silence again, watching the water ripple subtly with every biting gust of wind.

Finally, Santana shifted beside her, and Sugar heard her gulp, as though she was scared of what she was about to say. "Do you think," Santana began, something indescribable in her voice, "that maybe it all really is a test? Everybody has problems. Some of us aren't as intelligent, or not as naturally athletic, or not pretty, and we're all born with those things, but in the end we make do with it or try to fix it as best as we can. Everyone has something like that to overcome. And me, I…I do well in school and I'm co-Captain of the Cheerios and let's face it, I'm hot…" Sugar forced a chuckle at that, not sure where this was going. "So maybe this is my… my _thing_, that I'm supposed to work on. People always try their hardest to hide their flaws. Was I supposed to hide mine?"

"Who you love isn't a _flaw_," Sugar scoffed, shaking her head. "Everyone loves. Just because you love someone who has the same junk as you doesn't mean it's this huge, life-altering thing. It's as silly as if this was all about you dating someone blonde, isn't it? If everyone hammered into our skulls from birth that you had to date your own hair color, we could all easily have this huge prejudice against hair-color heteros." She grinned when that got a smile from Santana. "Imagine it: blondes and brunettes falling in love all over the place and having to hide their relationship from everyone." _That _got her a laugh and she continued, still grinning. "Coming out to your parents about your- gasp! –_blonde _lover. Oh, the drama! What a shame to the family name! A brunette with a blonde! We all get feelings for blondes, Santana, but that doesn't mean we have to act on them!"

"Shut up," Santana finally laughed out, elbowing her in the arm. "It's not like that."

"The funny thing is that it really _is_, though," Sugar retorted. "It's that simple and that silly. And people are gonna realize it eventually, even if your abuela doesn't. Even if some of our classmates don't. Eventually, people are gonna realize it's silly."

* * *

><p>"Don't you <em>ever<em>-!"

"Ow!"

"Do that-!"

"_Britt_!"

"To me-!"

Santana ducked out of the way of Brittany's hands while Sugar and Rory quickly struggled to get ahold of the taller girls' arms and Al watched on with wide eyes.

"Ag-!"

"I think she gets it, Brittany," Sugar insisted, cutting her off and patting her on the shoulder, then motioning for Rory to release her once it seemed Brittany had calmed down. A second later, Brittany had her arms wrapped around Santana tightly and Santana looked just as confused as Sugar felt, awkwardly patting Brittany on the back as she returned the hug.

"Are you okay?" Brittany whispered quietly, and Santana locked eyes with Sugar briefly over Brittany's shoulder, then smiled softly.

"…I will be."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: I've been writing a lot lately and I'm thinking there will be two more chapters after this one, three max. **

**Someone asked about hoping I'd follow canon for a bit longer, and to that I say that I haven't even watched "Glee" since the airing of IKAG lol. So I couldn't follow canon after that even if I wanted to. I do know the gist of what went on with Sectionals and post-Sectionals though, so I used a bit of that here. Other than that, canon has been completely thrown out the window.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"Do you really think we can do this?"<p>

"Of course. We're gonna win this."

"What if we don't?"

"We _will_. We know our routine to a T, we've all got our singing parts down, and we're better than New Directions. We've got this."

Sufficiently humbled and intimidated, Sugar settled down and crossed her arms over her chest anxiously, tapping her foot impatiently on the stage from being the curtains as Santana stood unwaveringly beside her. Brittany was just a few feet away, giving last-minute dance instructions to a few of the newer members, and Mercedes could be heard clearing her throat on Santana's other side.

"…You're _sure _we can do this?" Sugar abruptly piped up again, earning an immediate groan from Santana. "What if I mess up? What if I sound bad?"

"Sugar." Santana turned towards her and reached out, gripping both of her shoulders and looking her in the eyes. "Calm down. All you have to do is say the word 'what' over and over again. Even _you_ won't mess that up. And you're a great dancer."

Sugar looked up at her hopefully. "Really?"

"Duh." Santana rolled her eyes. "Why _else_ would we let you stay on the Troubletones?"

Out on the stage, a woman was now at the microphone, a clipboard in her hand. "Next up, joining us from McKinley High School…The Troubletones!"

They all filed out onto the stage in a long line, and Sugar took a deep breath to calm herself down as they faced the crowd and waited for the music to start. Santana must've sensed her nervousness, because she bumped Sugar's hand to get her attention and then shot her a reassuring smile. Sugar let out a breath and then returned it, her confidence renewed.

They could do this. They would win.

* * *

><p>"Well, that sucked."<p>

Sugar nodded her agreement while repeatedly banging her forehead on the back of the bus seat in front of her. Mercedes yanked her back by her dress a moment later. "Stop that before you cause yourself brain damage, girl."

"You know what's gonna happen now," Santana announced to the rest of the bus with a roll of her eyes. "Finn and Friends are gonna wanna do the 'right thing', and they'll look like heroes when they invite us to join back up with New Directions and go with them to Regionals. And we'll come out looking pathetic."

"I know it's hard, guys," Shelby piped up from the front, "but sometimes you just have to suck it up and admit you lost. They were good."

"Their song choices sucked," Santana argued. "And Brittany was offended by them."

Brittany nodded emphatically next to her. "I already knew the first half of the Alphabet just fine; they didn't have to sing a song to me about it."

"We should've tried to get them disqualified," Santana insisted, crossing her arms and sitting back in her seat with a pout. Mercedes and Sugar exchanged amused looks and the bus drove on in silence.

* * *

><p>By the time a few weeks had passed, everything had settled down, and not to Sugar and the rest of the girls' surprise, they found themselves back in the choir room with New Directions, with Will Schuester as their director again. Unfortunately, most of the other girls had chosen to return to focusing on the Cheerios, so that left only Brittany, Santana, Mercedes, and Sugar to join New Directions. Sugar, personally, was pleased, because in the end she'd actually gotten the only thing she'd originally wanted, which was to be on New Directions. It had simply taken her a lot more trouble and a lot more time to accomplish.<p>

"So as I'm sure you've heard," Will informed them on a cold afternoon when light flakes of snow could be seen falling just outside the choir room windows, "the Winter Formal is coming up this Friday. And since we did such a good job at last year's Prom, the school would like us to be responsible for some of the performances at this upcoming dance as well. It's basically first come first serve but there're enough opportunities for most of you, if not all of you, to sing. It just depends on who wants to do what, and what you guys decide to do as a whole. I'll have a sign-up sheet posted right near the door so just write down your names -whether individually or as a group- and a song and you're good. That's all for today, guys. Drive carefully."

He dismissed them with a wave and they all began to get to their feet. Sugar caught up with Brittany and Santana as they walked out to Santana's car. "I'm super excited for this dance," Brittany told them openly, grinning over at Santana and taking her hand. "It'll be the first one we get to go to together."

"I know," Santana replied just as happily. "This whole month should be awesome. You're totally spending Christmas with my family while yours is in Vancouver with your grandparents. My mom loves you so much that she freaks out every time she goes more than a week without seeing you."

"Your mom makes the best Christmas cookies. And now that I know Santa isn't real I won't feel bad about eating all of them."

They shared a laugh at that and Sugar shivered beside them, tightening the scarf around her neck as Santana unlocked her car. "You should come too, Sugar, if your dad doesn't mind," Santana added nonchalantly. "Hell, you both could come over Christmas morning or something, if you want."

"Really?" Sugar replied, ducking into the car hastily and then relaxing when they were all inside and the doors were shut.

"Sure. It's hard to get in with me and Britt, but once you do, you're a Lopez for life. So get used to it." Santana smirked at her in the rearview mirror, while Brittany nodded as though agreeing with the truth of this statement. Sugar turned away from both of them quickly and stared out her window, biting her lip to hide a smile and keeping her head turned to hide the tears she could feel forming at the corners of her eyes.

"Where are we going?" she asked a moment later, when it was clear they weren't planning on stopping at her house. Brittany leaned forward and rummaged around under her seat for a moment, before straightening up and holding up two ice skates tied together by the shoelaces.

"Me and Santana go out to the lake every Winter, once it freezes," she explained. "We've probably got an extra pair in the trunk; you can use those."

"But I don't know how to ice skate," Sugar told her nervously. "And are you sure that isn't dangerous?"

"We do it every year," Santana insisted. "And we can teach you; you'll pick it up quickly 'cause it's kind of like dancing. Britt's amazing at it."

* * *

><p>Brittany giggled openly at her as she gripped Sugar's hands tightly and guided her onto the frozen surface of the lake, and Santana was out further away, skating in circles and occasionally pausing to laugh at Sugar's misfortunes. She'd already fallen several times, and that was <em>with <em>Brittany's help.

"How did I not get the genes for this?" she muttered through gritted teeth as Brittany released her and she struggled to keep her balance. Suddenly, her legs stopped wobbling and she stilled, then hesitantly straightened up with a grin. "Hey, I'm not-!"

Without warning, her feet slipped out from under her, and she landed flat on her butt with a groan. Santana's laugh echoed from across the lake.

"I think she might be a lost cause, Britt!"

"I gotcha," Brittany insisted, ignoring Santana and reaching for Sugar's hand to pull her to her feet. "It just takes a little practice. Just do what I do."

She skated away from Sugar without elaborating, joining Santana in the center of the lake and grabbing her by the hand with a giggle, before twirling her around in place and then whispering something in her ear. Sugar scoffed at the two of them as they apparently forgot about her in favor of messing around with each other, and then looked down to focus on her feet, gently scooting them forward inch by inch while struggling to keep her balance. One foot bumped into the other and she quickly stopped, waving her arms around to try and stay up, but suddenly a hand was on each of her arms and both girls were on either side of her.

"Alright, we're only doing this once," Santana insisted. "So just relax and let us guide you."

"It's like riding a bike," Brittany explained. "We'll get you started, and then you take it from there."

Sugar immediately felt herself flash-backing (or was it flash-forwarding?) to the day Brittany had attempted to teach her to ride a bike when she was six years old.

"Oh, no. This is definitely not a good idea."

She hadn't been able to turn doorknobs with her right hand for two weeks.

"One…two…" Brittany started as they picked up speed, clearly ignoring her. "Three!"

Both girls released her and she let out a squeal, immediately sliding straight across the ice on her skates until she reached the opposite bank and face-planted right in the few inches of snow that had accumulated on the ground. Wincing at the cold, she slowly rolled over onto her back and squinted up at the sky, trying to make her brain work again after the snow had frozen it. A moment later, Santana and Brittany both slid to a stop beside her, causing ice to spray all over her. She winced.

"You know what? Maybe you should just stick to making snow angels or something," Santana suggested, eyeing Sugar's spread-eagled form with apprehension.

"Yeah," Sugar breathed out in agreement through chattering teeth, blinking rapidly to clear the ice from her eyelashes.

* * *

><p>"I was wondering when you'd be back," Al greeted her when Sugar finally got home. "Did the storm hold you up at school?"<p>

"No, I went ice-skating with my moms," Sugar explained happily. "I sucked but it was awesome. It's like the one thing I'm not good at though so I'm not too upset; no one can be perfect, after all."

"Right." Al shifted on the bar stool he was currently perched on, gripping the mug in his hand with an unusual tightness that Sugar failed to notice. She crossed the room to hang her coat up in the closet and to put her scarf away while his eyes followed her movements. Finally, he spoke aloud again. "Sugar, I think there's something we should talk about."

"I thought you said hanging out with them wouldn't do any damage," Sugar retorted when she was done putting her things away. "Besides, with me around they're doing better than ever, as a matter of fact."

"It's not about that," Al clarified with a sigh. He tilted his head toward the stool beside his. "Maybe you should take a seat."

Sugar furrowed her eyebrows, but obeyed, crossing the room to sit down on the remaining stool. "What's up?"

"It's December," he reminded her carefully, not quite managing to look her in the eyes. "You've been here six months now."

Sugar's obliviously neutral expression slowly began to fade, replaced by a deep frown. Al took a deep breath, and then just blurted out the news.

"I'm finished."

Sugar felt her heart drop into her stomach. "What?"

"With the generator, I'm-"

"I _know _what you meant," she cut him off, looking everywhere but at his face now, her expression one of shocked disbelief and uncertainty. "I…already? I don't wanna go home; what if-?"

"I know you're scared, Sugar," Al told her. "But we knew back in August that this was going to happen. You were to stay here until I could get you home. Now I can. As of right now, all you have to do is hit a button and you'll be back to where you came from." He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the coin. Sugar immediately shrunk away from it, her bottom lip trembling.

"Please don't make me go; I don't wanna go."

"Sugar, you have to go back sometime," Al told her. "I'm sorry, but you got yourself into this mess and now you've got to get out of it."

"But…but what if I…" she trailed off, opening and closing her mouth for a moment, before she finally squeezed her eyes shut and forced out the last word. "…Die?"

Al sighed in front of her. "Honestly, Sugar, I don't know how that works. I would imagine that you wouldn't die; you would simply just cease to exist. What that means, I don't know. You might press the button and then immediately vanish forever. Or you might get to go back to where you came from, but no one will be able to see you or hear you, as though you're a ghost."

"This is_ not _helping," Sugar responded through gritted teeth. Al looked on with sympathy as she clearly struggled to hold back tears.

"I won't force you right now. I know this is a lot to take in," he told her. "But you have to go back. Preferably sooner rather than later."

"Can I at least see my friends before I go?" Sugar asked him, wrapping her arms around herself protectively as he set the coin aside.

"Of course. But you'll have to tell them you're moving away and won't be able to be in touch, obviously. You can't tell them the truth." He straightened up suddenly. "There's a Winter Formal at your school Friday night, isn't there?"

Sugar sniffed loudly and nodded, shooting him a questioning gaze. "Why does that matter?"

"Because…" He fixed his gaze to hers and gave her a small smile. "I think that if I were you, and I'd had this huge, crazy time-traveling journey…I'd quite like a night like that to be my last memory of the whole thing."


	14. Chapter 14

Sugar felt like a walking dead woman, and apparently she wasn't doing a good job of hiding it, because as the week wore on, she began to get concerned looks from several of the New Directions members, and Brittany, Rory, and Santana had started to ask questions. She'd blamed it all on PMS or a bad test grade, depending on who asked, and apparently by Thursday, a certain green-loving male had gotten fed up with her being down.

"Sugar, you've been looking kinda sad lately, and I know you've already got a boyfriend-" Rory cut himself off suddenly while Sugar stared at him from beside her locker. "Wait, is that it? Did your boyfriend break up with you?"

"Try not to sound so excited," Sugar replied, rolling her eyes at him. "No, we're still together."

Rory's smile faded slightly. "Ah. Well, I know students from other schools aren't permitted to go to our Winter Formal anyway, so…" He withdrew an arm from behind his back to reveal a rose. "I thought maybe you'd go with me. Just as friends?"

Sugar suppressed a smile as she accepted the rose from him, and he stared at her hopefully. "Okay, Rory," she finally agreed. "But only as friends. Otherwise my boyfriend might beat you up."

"Got it," Rory agreed with a grin. "I'll be the perfect non-boyfriend date ever, I swear it." He tipped his shamrock-covered hat to her and hurried away, still smiling, while Sugar laughed a little at his eagerness and stored the flower in her locker.

* * *

><p>"Alright, spill," Santana demanded as Sugar was washing her hands in the bathroom later that same day. Suddenly, she found herself cornered by both of her moms, neither of which she had a chance of getting past without giving them answers first. "Did you have a cat we don't know about that died? Did you fall harder than we thought out on the lake and take some damage to your happy place? Because PMS makes you achy and irritable, not so depressed you practically start wearing long sleeves and bracelets to cover your wrists, loser."<p>

"I'm just having a weird week," Sugar insisted, moving to pass them, but after a short head-shake from Santana, Brittany quickly straightened up to block her path.

"The truth now, please," Santana demanded.

"We want to help," Brittany added. "But if you don't tell us what's wrong, then we can't."

"Do you need a date to the dance tomorrow?" Santana guessed. "Because we can fix you up so you don't have to go alone."

"I'm going with Rory," Sugar muttered, moving to push past Brittany again, but the taller girl firmly directed her back to the sinks. "Seriously, let me go."

"The leprechaun? That's surprising," Santana continued, exchanging an amused look with Brittany. "Okay, so how's your family life?"

"None of your business," Sugar snapped, crossing her arms. Santana raised both eyebrows.

"Hmm, feisty." She laughed when Sugar tried to get past them again. "Don't bother; we're stronger than you. Four straight years of rigorous cheerleading, remember?"

Sugar let out a frustrated growl and pushed at Santana without warning, sending her stumbling back a step, clearly caught off-guard. "Leave me alone!"

The two older girls stared at her, wide-eyed, and Brittany gently reached out and touched Sugar on the arm. "Sugar, what's going on?" she asked quietly.

Sugar looked back and forth between them nervously, taking in the twin concerned looks on their faces. Her eyes dropped to her feet and she exhaled. "I'm moving."

They were both silent for a moment. "Like… schools?" Santana finally questioned. Sugar nodded. "When?"

"Soon," she told them vaguely. "Really soon."

"Well…" Brittany trailed off, then smiled slightly. "That's okay. How far away are you going? We can still keep in touch."

Sugar just shook her head. "Not where _I'm _going, we can't. I just… didn't know how to say anything. I'm not good at saying goodbye."

"But you can't be going away forever," Brittany insisted. "Santana and I graduate in like, six months. Then we can come visit you whenever we want."

"No, you don't understand. You can't. Nobody will know where I am once I leave. When I'm gone, I'm gone forever."

"You can't know that," Santana argued, clearly perturbed.

"Yes. I can." She shook her head at them. "Please don't make me explain more than I already have, and please don't tell anyone else, because other than you two and my dad, no one knows yet. I'm moving away, and I'm not coming back. Ever."

They took a moment to let that sink in.

"…You really don't know when you're leaving?" Santana asked her.

"No," Sugar lied. She really, _really _didn't like goodbyes. "I don't."

Brittany and Santana both looked to each other briefly, before Brittany finally plastered a clearly forced smile to her face and wrapped a comforting arm around Sugar. "Well, we'll just have to make sure we spend as much time with you as possible until then, won't we?"

* * *

><p>"Have fun," Al murmured to her when the doorbell rang one night later, while Sugar was putting the finishing touches on her makeup in the mirror. "Make it a night to remember, alright?"<p>

Sugar swallowed hard and nodded silently, then made her way towards the door. "I'll be back in a few hours," she told him. "And then we can… I can…"

Al nodded and held a hand up, silently letting her know she didn't need to go on, and Sugar took a deep breath as she opened the door. Rory grinned at her from the other side.

"Brittany and Santana are waiting in the car," he explained, jerking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the street. "You look beautiful."

"You look very handsome," she told him politely. His grin widened and he caught a glimpse of Al in the living room behind him.

"I'll have her back by ten, Mr. Motta. Promise."

Al nodded to him and Sugar stepped outside into the cold and walked with Rory to the car.

"So are you singing any tonight?" he asked her. "Mr. Schuester asked me to do an Elvis song. I didn't know who he was until I looked him up on Brittany's computer but I sure do like him."

"No; I just think I'm gonna relax and enjoy it like a regular student," Sugar explained as she got into the back seat of the car. "No singing required."

"Wise choice," Santana agreed from the front seat. "Britts and I stayed clear of Mr. Schue yesterday while he was trying to get last-minute registrations. We're finally gonna get to enjoy ourselves for once."

They pulled into the school parking lot just a couple minutes later and filed out of the car one by one. Rory attempted to hold Sugar's door open for her, but she just smirked at him and told him, "Just friends, remember?"

"Right," he agreed, blushing and releasing the door while Brittany and Santana looked on in amusement.

The dance was being held in the gym on the other side of the school so it took them a ten-minute walk to get there, and they were deterred even more when they ran into Mike and Tina and a stressed-out Blaine who had apparently not tied his bowtie tightly enough and had lost it somewhere on his way into the school. By the time they finally reached the gym, the dance was already in full swing and Mercedes was leading a performance of Rihanna's "Please Don't Stop the Music" onstage. Brittany immediately let out a whoop and pulled Santana into the crowd, leaving Rory and Sugar standing together awkwardly at the entrance.

"So…want me to go get us some punch?" he finally asked her, his hands in his pockets.

"Sure," Sugar agreed. "I'll go find us a table."

She headed for an unoccupied corner of the gym and took a seat at a small four-person table, watching the crowd to keep herself entertained. Both Rachel and Finn and Mercedes and new-but-old guy Sam were amongst the dancing couples now, and Sugar smiled when she caught sight of Brittany and Santana hanging on each other without a care in the world.

"Here you go," Rory announced his arrival, placing a cup in front of her and taking the seat beside hers with a drink of his own in his other hand.

"Thank you," Sugar told him appreciatively.

"No problem."

"No, really." She smiled at him. "Thank you. A lot of people here thought I was stuck up, or annoying, or not good enough, but you were always nice to me, even before we ever really talked. I feel bad about hating you now."

Rory blinked at her uncertainly. "You hated me?"

Sugar waved his comment away as though it was silly. "Just for a few months. You're cool now." Much to his chagrin, she grinned at him and reached over to ruffle his hair playfully. "C'mon. Let's go dance."

* * *

><p>Ninety minutes later, Sugar had danced several times with Rory, spent ten full minutes on Artie's lap doing the robot with him, danced with Brittany for two songs, shared a spiked drink with both Tina and Santana, comforted Rachel when Finn made the dumb mistake of accepting what he thought was an innocent friendly proposal to dance from Quinn, and spent a song sandwiched in between Blaine and Kurt when Puck bet them they couldn't pull off dancing like straight guys. Eventually, she found herself back in the same corner again, slightly dizzy from the punch and all the spinning. That last song had been a doozy.<p>

Mercedes plopped down next to her without warning, letting out a relieved sigh at finally being able to rest, and then looked over at her curiously. "Where's Rory? I heard you two came here together."

Sugar simply pointed across the room to where Rory had Quinn by the hand and was currently in mid-twirl with her. "What about Sam?"

"Hiding from Shane," Mercedes replied. "He caught us dancing and Sam had to bolt."

"That sucks," Sugar replied. Mercedes nodded and they fell into a comfortable silence, watching everyone else. "Mercedes," Sugar finally changed the subject, regaining the other girl's attention. "Thanks for being my friend."

"It's not as hard as it looks, Sugar," Mercedes told her, raising an eyebrow. "Without you, we never would've gotten the Troubletones together."

"But you brought in Brittany and Santana." Sugar smiled at her. "I'm really happy you did that."

"You three _are_ pretty close, aren't you?" Mercedes mused. "You know, their freshman and sophomore year, it was the two of them and Quinn. The three of them were like glue. Then Quinn got pregnant and things changed. Santana and Quinn started hating each other. They get along fine now, but I haven't seen Brittany and Santana click so well with someone the way they used to with Quinn. At least, not until you came along. You're really good for them." She let out an unexpected chuckle. "Especially since if it was just the two of them alone together all the time all they'd ever do is-"

"Right," Sugar cut her off, wincing at the unspoken end of that sentence. "Yeah, Santana's actually nice to me now. I don't think she liked me very much when I first moved here."

"Santana hates everyone but Brittany anyway," Mercedes informed her. "And you, now. I'm pretty sure she hates Quinn and me too, but she respects us, at least. But you, she's got a soft spot for you. Not like the one she's got for Brittany, because I don't think anyone else could ever make Santana _that _soft, but it's there. They're gonna miss you when they graduate, you know."

"I'll miss them," Sugar murmured sadly. She glanced to Mercedes, then. "I'll miss you too, Mercedes."

"Thanks, girl. You know we'll keep in touch, though." Sugar gave her a half-hearted nod and returned her smile, and Mercedes' gaze shifted to across the gym. "Uh oh; Shane's back. I gotta go."

Sugar waved goodbye to her as she hurried away to no doubt pile on excuses for her boyfriend to swallow. On the stage, Rachel had now taken over and was about to begin singing a slow song, judging by the opening music. The people dancing began to pair off and Sugar reached down to rummage through the purse on her lap, finally coming up with her cell phone. She checked the time. It was half past nine. Almost time to go.

She returned her gaze to the crowd to scan it, knowing full-well this was the last time she'd ever see her friends. Finn was sitting alone at another nearby table, his eyes on Rachel, enamored and unmoving. Tina and Mike were wrapped up in each other on the dance floor, as were Kurt and Blaine, who were just beside them. Quinn was sipping punch by the punch bowl with Rory, who was swaying noticeably and struggling hard to keep himself upright. Puck and Artie were trying and failing to stuff snacks from the buffet table into their pockets without ruining the material of their tuxedos. And Brittany and Santana were on the far side of the crowd, arms wrapped around each other and bodies pressed together. Santana tucked her face into the side of Brittany's neck with a content sigh, and a light smile played on Brittany's lips as her eyes fluttered shut. Sugar seared the image into her mind forever.

Satisfied, she slowly got to her feet and hoisted her purse onto her shoulder, taking in the scene one last time. "Bye," she whispered, and then turned and left the gym without another word.


End file.
